2020 Clos Manyetes

As with some other wines, I had two vintages of the pure Cariñena to taste, and the 2020 Manyetes pales a bit in comparison with the 2019. 2020 was very wet and low-yielding, an unusual year in Priorat (they had mildew!), and they lost 70% of the production; so they aged the wine in a 600-liter oak demi-muid and some glass demijohns, but they took it out of the wood and finished aging it in a ceramic vessel (gres), which behaves more like concrete than terracotta—it's less oxidative. The wine is ripe and a bit heady, with abundant tannins that are going to require some time in bottle to get polished. Only 1,200 bottles were filled in August 2020.