2019 Terroir Al Límit Priorat "Pedra de Guix", Catalonia, Spain

ABOUT THIS WINE

33% Pedro Ximénez from Lloar, 33% Macabeo from Torroja, and 33% Grenache Blanc from Poboleda. 50-80 year old vines. Pedro Ximénez in clay soil, Macabeo in river soil, and Grenache Blanc in slate. 400-600 meters of elevation. 3,800 bottles produced.

Dominik Huber wanted the first white wine in his Terroir al Límit range to showcase the transcendental heights and essential importance of whites in Mediterranean cuisine. And so Pedra de Guix was born. An “oxidative” counterpoint to Terra de Cuques, Guix is a blend of old vines of the region’s most important white varieties: Pedro Ximenez, Macabeo and Grenache Blanc. Steep slopes and concentrated fruit, together with a traditional approach in the cellar. Following a hand harvest, the whole bunches undergo a gentle basket pressing, vinification in cement tanks, and then aged for 8 months in cement. The PX is left alone to undergo a controlled oxidation before blending.

The hands-off biodynamic approach reflects the alluring taste of time and patience, a gentle velvet beauty that moves with waves of citrus, nuts and flowers across the palate. Rich, soft and ripe. The longer it is opened, the fresher it becomes in the glass, developing tension, depth, and a mouthwatering salinity expressing the soils of the region: clay, alluvial and slate. Anything but a simple pour and go, this is ultimately an expression of tradition and place.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

When Eben Sadie and Dominik Huber first met in 2001 at Mas Martinet, Eben was a promising and highly-regarded young enologist from South Africa and Dominik, German by birth, was a wine enthusiast with a background in business administration and an interest in the culinary arts. In short order they became fast friends.

With the help of the Pérez family of Mas Martinet, Eben and Dominik purchased some fruit and leased a little corner in the cellar of Cims de Porrera where they vinified their first vintage of Dits del Terra in 2001. After two years at Cims de Porrera they moved into a tiny cellar in Torroja del Priorat. The move coincided with the first vintage of Arbossar in 2003. In the following years they released additional cuvées: Torroja in 2005, Manyes and Tosses in 2006, Pedra de Guix in 2008 and Terra de Cuques in 2011. Throughout the decade since its founding, Terroir al Limit has evolved in its understanding of the Priorat – coming to view it as a region similar to Burgundy in its complexity and potential to produce elegant and transparent wines. The Torroja and Terra de Cuques are the village wines, Pedra de Guix, Dits del Terra and Arbossar the Premier Crus, and Manyes and Tosses are the Grand Crus.

With the demands arising from increased production and additional farming responsibilities and with Eben Sadie spending more time in South Africa with his various projects, Domink began working full time at Terroir al Limit in 2007. Devoting himself primarily to the cultivation of a growing number of vineyard sites, Dominik approach to farming directly impacted the quality of the fruit at harvest. With better fruit coming into the cellar, Eben and Dominik had a profound realization that ripe, concentrated grapes combined with extractive winemaking and aging in barriques didn’t really show the authenticity

of the vineyards they were working. As a result they begun a process of reevaluation of their work – resulting in earlier harvests, phasing out the use 225 liter barrels and employing a “Burgundian” style of vinification utilizing whole clusters and avoiding either pigeage or remontage. The goal at Terroir al Limit is the fostering of wines of infusion rather than extraction, and elegance rather than the typical heaviness of the Priorat. Currently the wines are primarily aged in foudres– Stockinger upright barrels from Austria to be exact– between 1,200 and 3,500 liters in size or in small concrete tanks.

Realizing that organic or biodynamic farming during an era of global warming is insufficient for a region as hot and dry as the Priorat, Dominik farms rigorously to guarantee the health and vitality of his soils so they can retain as much moisture as possible, reducing the hydric stress on the vines in summer and allowing for an earlier harvest of physiologically ripe fruit.

Eben Sadie left Terroir al Limit in 2011, to devout his energies to his extraordinary work in South Africa, but he left it in the capable hands of Dominik Huber. Each successive vintage is testament to their original vision for Terroir al Limit as well as Dominik’s continued quest to make the most elegant and expressive wines in the Priorat.