Somni 2016 3000ml Doppel-Magnum

Somni means dream in Catalan. Alfredo Arribas worked as an architect designing bars and hotels in Barcelona before buying land in the Priorat in 2001 and bottling his first wines in 2004. That signature has stayed with him: clean lines, no superfluous material. The wine brings together Mediterranean spice, dark fruit and a cooling minerality.

The grapes come from the Clos del Portal estate near the villages of El Lloar and Bellmunt, forty hectares stretching from the valley of the Siurana river towards the Montsant mountains. Only fourteen hectares of this are planted with vines, the rest being olives, almonds and Mediterranean woodland. The soil is black Llicorella slate, so poor and steep that phylloxera spared the old, ungrafted vines; some of the Cariñena are over a hundred years old. Arribas farms organically and biodynamically, limiting the yield to around one kilogram of grapes per vine.

Cariñena and Syrah. Winemaker Juan Asens ferments spontaneously with wild yeasts, macerates briefly, uses minimal sulphur and forgoes new barriques. Harvest takes place earlier than is typical for the region, to preserve freshness.

Dry, with a moderate 14.0% vol. yet dense in flavour. Wet stone and wild herbs carry further than the wood, which plays no role here.

The 3000-millilitre double magnum allows the 2016 vintage to age more slowly than the standard bottle. Bottled in Gratallops.