2011 Alvaro Palacios "Finca Dofí" Priorat

The 2011 Finca Dofi represents a huge jump in quality for this wine. They have been re-grafting all the Cabernet Sauvignon to Garnacha (they’ve been doing that for six years) and Dofi has mostly fruit from north-facing plots which give it a special freshness, pure red fruit and blood orange, peach, subtle herbs and aniseed with an impressive elegance and balance, round and velvety tannins, without the chunkiness that Cabernet and Syrah give in Priorat, very long and persistent in the finish. I tasted it next to the 2010 Finca Dofi and you could feel the chunkiness of the Cabernet tannins in the wine, while 2011 had a rounder, softer and silkier texture. This is a superb Dofi, much more elegant and subtle than any vintage I remember, a quantum leap from past vintages. Bravo! (LG)