WTN: 1997 Clos Mogador

[Brad Ballinger]

I was at a tapas party this weekend -- bring a tapa dish and some wine.

1997 Clos Mogador, Priorat. I brought this wine because I knew there would be some geeks present. Little did I know that one woman would bogart a third of this bottle because it was the closest one to where she had parked her ass. And then with a good two ounces still in her glass, she topped it off with some loganberry wine (after the Clos Mogador had been emptied). Through pure luck in timing, I managed to steal 2-3 ounces. The wine is made from a single vineyard in Priorat. It is a blend of 35% garnacha, 35% cabernet sauvignon, 20% syrah, and 10% carinena. Aged in new French oak vats. The wine is very concentrated. Most of that is a result of the growing conditions – steeply terraced vineyards, no irrigation. The presses used at Clos Mogador are olive presses, which result in 50% less juice, adding to the concentration factor.

This wine is also very delicious. There is a lot to enjoy here, and the wine is complete without being overly showy. Intense and inviting nose of blueberry, chocolate, smoke, plum jelly, wet earth, and roasting meat. In the mouth, the fruit, smoke, oak, and earth are in very nice harmony. The fruit concentration is evident, but the wine isn’t even in the same ball park as syrup. The tannins are ripe and silky, and provide a wonderful structure. Finishes with more earthy minerality than with fruit. It’s very good now, could still be on the way up, and should be enjoyable for 7-10 more years.

Is this new world, modern winemaking of not? The grapes are left to suffer in the vineyard, and fight for water along with weeds and other vegetation. The only “manipulation” used in the winery is gravity from Mother Nature. And wine made from non-native grapes and new French oak doesn’t always mean modern. Regardless of where one falls on this debate, this particular bottle of Clos Mogador was one very good wine.