First-taste: Torres Mas de la Rosa 2017 and latest releases

As part of its 150th Anniversary celebrations, Spanish producer Torres has released new vintages of its top wines from Priorat, Penedès and Conca de Barberà. The Antologia tasting included the second vintage of Mas de la Rosa, made from a tiny 1.9ha parcel of vines grown at 500m in the Mas de la Rosa Valley in Porrera, Priorat. 

‘We’ve been working very hard to acquire historic vineyards,’ explained Miguel Torres Maczassek, fifth-generation managing director of the company, who discovered the Mas de la Rosa finca while he was looking for plots of old vines to use in Torres Perpetual, the producer’s old-vine Priorat bottling. 

The steep vineyard site, featuring Priorat’s signature licorella slate soil, is farmed by grower Manolo del Aguila Ruiz. Garnacha and Cariñena vines were planted here in 1939-1940. Mas de la Rosa is a field blend of the two vines – roughly 60% Cariñena and 40% Garnacha – fermented in stainless steel, with slow extraction, and aged for 16 months in new French oak.

‘Priorat is very powerful; its wines can be very strong. You have to tame it and try to obtain this finesse, this purity,’ commented Miguel, who noted that the high altitude of this site gives the wine its freshness and acidity. 

While the 2016 vintage was characterised by a dry winter, rainy spring and below-average temperatures in summer; 2017 saw above-average rainfall in winter and an extremely hot spring and early summer. Only 2,328 bottles, 70 magnums and 35 jeroboams of Mas de la Rosa 2017 have been produced. Bottles are available via importer Fells, with an RRP of £300.

In addition to the Mas de la Rosa, Torres has also released the 2017 vintages of Milmanda and Mas La Plana, along with the 2016 Reserva Real and Grans Muralles – a wine that showcases the work the producer has been doing to resurrect and protect native grapes such as Querol and Garró. 

Finally Miguel discussed some of the new Spanish projects that Torres has in development, including Els Tossals, an abandoned mountain vineyard at 750m in Priorat. ‘This is a project for my children,’ he said, adding that he hopes Torres will eventually release a single-vineyard wine from the site.

Tasting Torres Mas de la Rosa and other wines: