Mas Doix Salanques

Robert Parker, 94 pts

I find the 2018 Salanques to be unusually oaky, with plenty of spices and smoke on the nose and grainy tannins on the palate. It's an old-vine blend of 65% Garnacha, 25% Cariñena and 10% (younger) Syrah that fermented in stainless steel with neutral yeasts and matured in 50/50 new and second use French oak barrels for 14 months.

The Celler Mas Doix was created by the Doix and Llagostera families in 1998. It is the reinitiation of a tradition that began in 1850. The gold medal obtained in the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1888 and the silver medal won in the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1878 remind the Doix family of the passion with which Juan Extrems Doix, Juan Doix's grandfather, used long ago to look after the vineyards and produce his wines.

The phylloxera outbreak did not mean the end of the family's vineyards. They were replanted with the Garnacha and Carinena varieties, native to the Priorat region, thereby maintaining the growth of the vineyards while the production was sent to the cooperative in Poboleda until it was able to be produced in Mas Doix's winery. Nowadays, the family labors with love and passion for the fruit grown in their hundred-year-old vineyards so they can produce great wines.