July 13, 2010

Nestled in the inland areas of southern Catalunya, the comarca (county) of Priorat is a dramatic place. The terrain that gives the region’s internationally-renowned wines their distinctive flavour also gives the area spectacular, craggy landscapes and a wild, lonely beauty. It’s a sparsely populated place with tiny, ancient villages scattered on hilltops here and there and occasional masies (traditional farmhouses) isolated amongst the vines. The stern mountains that encircle Priorat only add to this sense of isolation.

Courtesy of Turisme Priorat

The vines have been crucial to Priorat’s history and in the last two decades they’ve become a beacon of hope for the region. In the 12th century, the monks of Priorat’s Carthusian monastery, Escaladei, started making wine for the first time in Spain since the Romans left. Priorat’s winemaking tradition flourished and was the area’s economic backbone, until the phylloxera (an aphid-like pest) devastated the region at the end of the 19th century. With the wine industry crushed, much of the rest of Priorat’s farming suffered too and the area became very deprived. Throughout the 20th century people left in droves, giving Priorat one of Catalunya’s highest rates of depopulation. People have mostly stayed away. Even today, the 2,500-inhabitant capital, Falset, dwarfs all its surrounding villages, most of which have no more than a couple of hundred residents.

However, in recent years a new generation of ambitious young winemakers has moved back into the area, tempted by the slate soil and rock-bottom land values. In little over 20 years, viniculturists like Àlvaro Palacios have places Priorat squarely on the international wine map, using a blend of native and important grape varieties. Wines from certain areas of the comarca carry the uber-prestigious denominació d’origen qualificada (D.O.Q) label, indicating their exceptional quality and heritage; Spain´s only other region for D.O.Q. wines is La Rioja. Although Priorat remains depressed in comparison to other areas of Catalunya, a surge in rural and wine-based tourism and the burgeoning wine industry have brought jobs and stability and staunched the flow of people leaving the area.

Things to see

Priorat takes its name from the prior who led the Cartoixa d’Escaladei, the Carthusian monastery that was founded on the lonely windswept site at the foot of the Serra de Montsant in the 12th century. Over the next six centuries, the monastery became hugely rich and powerful and was extensively enlarged and redesigned. However, in the 19th century, when the State stripped huge areas of land from the ‘dead hands’ of the Church, Escaladei was the abandoned. Within two years, the monastery was sacked and demolished by the nearby villages, whose people had been forced to pay high tithes for centuries. These days, only a marble-clad entry arch remains standing, although the Generalitat has rebuilt a monk’s cell to illustrate the monastic lifestyle, and is currently working to preserve the ruins. Near La Morera de Montsant. Closed Mondays.