Pioneers of Priorat

Audacious vintners, old vines and clashing visions yield great wines in a forgotten corner of Spain
By
From the Oct 15, 2015, issue

Priorat is a small wine district in Spain's Catalonia region. With its glory days in the distant past, Priorat slumbered through most of the 20th century, impoverished and forgotten. Then in the 1970s, a group of outsiders—idealistic and indefatigable—arrived with a vision of a new Priorat. The passion and hard work of these visionaries reinvigorated the region. Wine Spectator's executive editor Thomas Matthews explains.

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