News: Priorat & changes aplenty
Year 16, No. 11
Highlights: Priorat & Montsant 2026
Europe is on fire… and the grape harvest has arrived.
Actually, the harvest for 2026 has been in full swing as there were several wineries that started in the middle of July, followed by sparkling wine producer, Gramona on the 22 July starting what was their earliest harvest in their history, followed by others such as recent Corpinnat addition, Juvé & Camps.
Based upon the look of the ripening of the grapes, those in the red wine regions will most likely start in about two weeks as well, which makes it hard to believe that just 20 years ago, winemakers were still able to take holidays in August…
No one ever said making wine would be easy, but I think anyone who is making wine today will tell you that the making bit is the easy part. It’s the whole selling of wine ‘thing’ where it gets dicey.
It’s always been like this though and every winemaker I’ve met in past years that’s successful, is pretty much always on the road when it’s not the harvest season. I even recall one lunch I had with Miguel Torres who told me that they key to their success was quite simple, “If there was a place where we weren’t selling our wines, we’d hop on a flight and go there.” thus emphasizing a key to being successful in the wine business is indeed “showing up.”
In a post-pandemic world, all of this has been upended to a large degree and the act of presence and getting one’s wines out there, or depending upon the fame of a region or past glories isn’t working. This is one of the main themes that’s facing regions around the world, but especially one such as Priorat, the flagbearer of quality wine in Catalunya and even Spain.
On thing that’s constant is that winery owners are always asking if there’s any insight to the situation to which I say, “If possible, lean into the experiential.” It’s not how you move mountains of wine, but it seems to be one of the few areas of the industry with some form of movement these days.
The reason I say this is that I had the pleasure of a deeper dive into the heart of Campania Italy and the Irpinia region this spring and saw that it’s never just about being open for tastings. Wine regions are rarely ever close to cities and so if they want people to visit, there needs to be some form of a destination angle to them.
Many are already doing this well as I saw when visiting Porto a month ago and its complete overhaul in terms of a wine destination but that friends, is for the future.
Drink well, be well.
-Miquel
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