I tasted three older vintages of Miserere. The 1993 Miserere lacks vigour on the nose, although that is partly compensated by the palate that offers gentle, spicy, dark plum fruit mingling with a touch of eau-de-vie and balsamic. It is nicely composed towards the finish but it would probably have been at its peak 5-6 years ago. Carles Pastrana was one of the pioneers of Priorat’s renaissance in the 1980s, when viticulture hung by a 700-hectare thread. Alongside Alvaro Palacios and Rene Barbier, Pastrana bottled his first vintage in 1989. His aim is to express the terroir in accordance with the vintage, to reflect its vagaries by always using the same blend of grape varieties year after year, while all his wines are unfiltered. The flagship Clos de l’Obac is one of Priorat’s longest serving wines although I somehow felt that the Bordeaux grape varieties did not quite “gel” with the Rhone. Importer: Vinea Imports, Seattle, WA; tel. (206) 313-4994; Mono Verde Imports; www.monoverdeimports.com; and Obac Imports; no telephone number available.