Priorat (DOQ)
| Wine region | |
|
|
| Official name | Denominació d'Origen Qualificada Priorat |
|---|---|
| Type | Denominación de Origen Calificada |
| Year established | 2006 (DO in 1954) |
| Country | Spain |
| Sub-regions | Priorat county |
| Precipitation (annual average) | 400-600 mm |
| Total area | 1,900 hectares |
| No. of vineyards | 567 |
| Grapes produced | 4.8 tn |
| No. of wineries | 103 |
| Wine produced | 27 698 hL |
Priorat is a Spanish Denominació d'Origen Qualificada (DOQ) for wines produced in the Priorat county in the province of Taragona to the south-west of Catalonia.
The DOQ covers 11 municipalities. It primarily produces powerful red wines, which came to international attention in the 1990s. The area is characterised by its unique terroir of black slate and quartz soil known as llicorella.
It is one of only two wine regions in Spain to qualify as DOCa, the highest qualification level for a wine region according to Spanish wine regulations, alongside Rioja DOCa.
Priorat is the Catalan word, the one that appears most often on wine labels, while the Castilian equivalent is Priorato.
The first recorded evidence of grape growing and wine production dates from the 12th century, when the monks from the Carthusian Monastery of Scala Dei, founded in 1194, introduced the art of viticulture in the area. The prior of Scala Dei ruled as a feudal lord over seven villages in the area, which gave rise to the name Priorat. The monks tended the vineyards for centuries until 1835 when they were expropriated by the state, and distributed to smallholders.
At the end of the 19th century, the phylloxera pest devastated the vineyards causing economic ruin and large scale emigration of the population. Before the phylloxera struck, Priorat is supposed to have had around 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of vineyards. It was not until the 1950s that replanting was undertaken. The DO Priorat was formally created in 1954. The seat of the DO's regulatory body was initially Reus, some 30 km to the east of the wine-region, rather than in Priorat itself.
In the decade from 1985, the production of bulk wine was phased out and bottling of quality wine phased in.
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Wikipedia