Freshness, minerality and balance. The leitmotif of style of Laurent Combier, Peter Fischer and Jean Michel Gerin since 2002 – the year the Trio Infernal in Priorat was founded – has gained a following in this region of southern Spanish Catalonia and continues to be the priority for the three wine-makers for this 2016 harvest.
The Trio Infernal commented: “Determining the date for the harvest was not easy for this particularly hot and dry 2016 vintage. Normally, with such dry conditions, such abundant amounts of sunshine and low yields which concentrate the dry extract, the Priorat vineyards produce full-bodied and generous wines. But we are looking to produce fresh wines with powerful aromatic intensity and marked minerality, whose freshness and balance bring remarkable complexity with ageing. This 2016 vintage is a new challenge – the kind we like!”
Renowned for its great terroirs made up of steep shale hillsides, the Priorat experienced a particularly hot 2016. After a wet spring, sun and heat reigned supreme for three months. Whilst the vines made the most of spring, with the appearance of fine clusters, the lack of water at the end of summer forced them to go into survival mode, resulting in small grapes with little juice but high in concentration and with superb aromatic intensity. At the Trio Infernal Estate –watched over daily by Pep Aguilar - the harvest was brought forward by a few days and, in the first juice extracted, the three grape varieties of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan are already expressing the fresh style the trio are looking for.