1996 L'Ermita Alvaro Palacios - Priorat - 1 Bottle (0.75L)

Parker: I tasted this wine, which is only available in the gray market, in Bordeaux, where the wine is garnering praise for its extraordinary intensity of fruit and lavish display of toasty new oak. I had the 1994 last year, and was equally blown away by that wine, but I was told that none of it made it to the United States since proprietor Alvaro Palacios does not yet have an importer. In any event, the 1995 is just as remarkable as the 1994. It is mostly old vine Grenache aged for 20 months in a high percentage of French oak and small quantities of American oak. The wine boasts a dense ruby/purple color, as well as a flamboyant, exotic nose of over-ripe black currant fruit, and lavish quantities of sweet, toasty new oak. Plump and fat, with low acidity and awesome levels of extract, this wine possesses fabulous potential. Like all Priorat's great wines (Clos de l'Obac, Clos Erasmus, and Clos Mogador), I suspect this wine tips the scales at 14%-15% alcohol. The alcohol content may be even higher, but the wine is so extraordinarily concentrated and thick, the alcohol is amazingly well-hidden. Clos Dofi's 1995 l'Ermita should age into a spectacular bottle of Spanish red wine once the oak becomes better integrated



always kept in cellar with temperature and humidity control
sempre tenuto in cantina con temperatura e umiditá controllata