Alvaro Palacios : L'Ermita 2024

Characteristics and tasting tips for L'Ermita 2024 by Alvaro Palacios

Food and wine pairing

L'Ermita pairs beautifully with roast or grilled red meats, such as a cut of beef or a rack of lamb with herb jus, as well as with slow-cooked game dishes. It is also a delightful match for fine poultry in a mushroom sauce, truffle risottos or pasta, and well-aged hard cheeses, whose umami echoes the wine's minerality.

Serving and cellaring

L'Ermita 2024 should be stored at a maximum temperature of 12°C. While the wine is still young, a brief decanting will soften the tannins and reveal its aromatic range. Ideally served between 16 and 18°C, this wine has excellent ageing potential and will reach its peak after around ten years in bottle.

The pure, refined expression of Alvaro Palacios's schist terroir in Priorat

The estate

Founded in 1989 in Gratallops, at the heart of the Priorat D.O.Q. appellation in Catalonia, Álvaro Palacios bears the name of its founder, who still runs the estate today. Within a few decades, the house has established itself as a benchmark of Spanish wine, driven by a philosophy rooted in respect for the terroir, plot selection and the promotion of old Grenache vines planted on the region's schist slopes. This uncompromising approach has made L'Ermita one of the most sought-after wines in the country.

The vineyard

The wine comes from the historic L'Ermita vineyard, located on the heights of Gratallops in Priorat, at an altitude of 350 to 430 metres. Facing north and east, the plots lie on llicorella schist soils, a flaky Palaeozoic rock rich in iron and magnesium, crossed by a sandy vein dotted with dolomite blocks. The vines, aged between 85 and 114 years, are bush-trained with stakes and farmed according to certified organic principles, with no irrigation or green harvesting, and are worked by mule on these steep slopes. Planting density ranges from 3,700 to 4,100 vines per hectare, with an extremely low yield of around 10.45 hl/ha, ensuring exceptional natural concentration.

The vintage

The estate rated the 2024 harvest as "very good". The grapes, hand-picked with rigorous selection on 24 and 25 October 2024, come from this site perched between 350 and 430 metres above sea level, in a Mediterranean climate tempered by maritime influence.

Winemaking and ageing

For L'Ermita 2024, the grapes, partly whole-bunch and partly destemmed, were fermented in a wooden vat with regular punch-downs and native yeasts, followed by a long 44-day maceration. Malolactic fermentation took place spontaneously in barrels, after which the wine was aged for twelve months in oval French oak foudres. No fining, filtration or cold stabilisation is carried out, in order to preserve the full substance and authenticity of the fruit.

Grape varieties

The blend comprises 92% Grenache, 7% Carignan and 1% white varieties (Grenache Blanc, Macabeo and Pedro Ximénez), all from the interplanted old vines of the L'Ermita vineyard.