Priorat Wine Region

The Priorat (Priorato in Spanish) is a Denominació d'Origen Qualificada (DOQ) — one of only two in Spain alongside Rioja to hold this highest classification — occupying a remote, deeply incised mountain landscape in the south of Catalonia centered on the town of Falset, in Tarragona province, approximately 90 minutes from Barcelona by car. The region takes its name from the 12th-century Carthusian Priory of Scala Dei (Scale of God), Catalonia's first Carthusian monastery, whose monks first cultivated vines here around 1163. The ruins of Scala Dei, in the village of La Morera de Montsant, can be visited on foot. The terrain is among the most extreme in European viticulture: steep terraces carved into hillsides of llicorella — black slate with silver mica inclusions — drain poorly and stress the vines into producing very low yields (often less than 1kg per vine) of intensely concentrated Garnacha and Cariñena (Carignan) grapes. The resulting wines, after the region's dramatic revival from the 1980s onward led by producers like René Barbier, Álvaro Palacios, and Dafne Glorian, command prices from €20 to over €200 per bottle and are ranked among the most complex in Spain. The villages of Gratallops, Porrera, El Lloar, Poboleda, and Bellmunt del Priorat each have boutique wineries — many family-scale — that accept visitors by appointment. Falset, the commercial center, has an excellent wine-focused restaurant scene. The drive through the region on the T-702 road above Gratallops provides aerial views of the terraced vineyards that convey the extraordinary drama of the landscape.