Mas d’en Gil Clos Fontà 2015

I think there is a jump in finesse and precision in the 2015 Clos Fontà, their old-vine red produced with a selection of the best old vines every vintage. It’s 60% Garnacha and 40% Cariñena from 50- to 95-year-old vines mostly on llicorella slate soils but also some on limestone, on 30% to 40% slopes that are facing east. It fermented in 500- and 1,500-liter oak vats, as each plot is fermented separately with indigenous yeasts; the wines were blended after malolactic in their old underground concrete pools. It matured in French and Austrian 225-liter barriques and 1,500-liter oak vats for one year. It has notes of licorice and fennel, so typical from this part of Priorat, giving it a very Mediterranean profile, and it’s spicy and earthy, with ripe fruit but without excess. The palate is medium to full-bodied and reveals abundant, fine-grained tannins and a nice combination of elegance and rusticity. Again, very Priorat but without the excesses from the past. Drink date: 2020-2030. Score – 95. (Luis Gutiérrez, robertparker.com, Dec. 30, 2020)