The 2007 Miserere has an extravagant bouquet of vibrant kirsch, pressed flowers, orange sorbet and menthol aromas. The palate is full-bodied with a firm grip, layers of ripe red fruit, allspice, cloves and sea salt. It is very dense and grippy towards the finish and needs another decade in bottle. 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.

This supple red offers plum and dried cherry fruit, with notes of chocolate and earth. The tannins are a bit gritty, but there's good density. Drink now through 2014. 200 cases imported.??–TM??Region: Spain / Priorat Select to Add

Hard and harsh on the nose, with an odd clam-or-oyster shell aroma that comes back time and time again. The palate is narrow and tannic, with minerally berry and baked flavors. Grippy, hard and tannic on the finish, with red berry and cherry notes.——M.S.(10/1/2011)—— 87