2023 vintage
Clos del Mestre
Priorat, Spain · Winemaker: Núria Ferrer · 30 members
What happened
The vintage, in five moments.
- Driest spring in twelve years — old vines held, young vines stressed.
- Núria dropped the Mestre Jove cuvée entirely in 2023. Only the Vell Carinyena and the Garnatxa-led blend made it.
- Pick staggered across three weeks in late September, all by hand on the terraces.
- Whole-cluster Carinyena fermented in old wood for the first time — Núria called it a bet she needed to take.
- Bottled March 2025. 186 cases total.
The final wine
What we bottled.
The 2023 Clos del Mestre Vell Carinyena is the wine Núria wanted to make ten years ago and couldn't. Dark fruit, black pepper, a graphite streak from the llicorella, a tannin that resolves slower than Grenache would. The Garnatxa-led blend is lighter — strawberry and rosemary, brighter acid. Members got four of each at Vintner tier.
From the Crew
“Núria dropped a whole cuvée. No marketing spin, just 'the wine isn't there this year, I won't bottle it.' That was worth the membership fee alone.”