The small but now famous Priorat region in Catalonia was a sleeping jewel until almost 40 years ago. Only the "Scala Dei" cooperative kept the flag flying for viticulture in a region where the Romans were already cultivating vines a good 2,000 years ago, and later it was monasteries that worked the rugged vineyard terraces here. But long before Alvaro Palacio heralded the great renaissance of Priorat wines with his "L'Ermita" in the 1990s, thereby writing Spanish wine history, it was a group of friends around the oenologist icon René Barbier and his friend Christopher Cannan who recognised the untapped ageing potential of the region at the end of the 1980s and set a first, clear and distinct accent with Clos Figueras. When Robert Parker's "Wine Advocate" discovered the wine and gave it a high rating, there was no stopping the rise of Clos Figueras. Today, the small winery cultivates 14 hectares, with the parcels being connected to each other in one piece on the one hand and the vines standing on steep terraces that can only be worked by hand under difficult conditions on the other. The parcels, with their gnarled vines up to 140 years old, are surrounded by majestic fig trees, which have lent their name to the winery and the wines. Syrah, Garnacha, Monastrell and Cabernet Sauvignon are cultivated and provide the raw material for the creation of the exciting cuvées. The wines are fermented in barriques, followed by ageing and maturation in barriques. The wines are rightly regarded as the region's flagship because they combine depth, finesse, intensity and complexity with a fine mineral freshness, due not only to the climate but also to the region's unique slate soil. In their youth, they are sometimes somewhat reserved, but then really pick up speed after a certain amount of bottle ageing.
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