Silvestris Ranks Among Best Natural Wines in the World — Decanter
An ambassador for Priorat´s wines and rugged land
Silvestris, from Gratavinum, has been selected as one of the thirty best natural wines in the world by Decanter. Those announcements came after the natural wine blind tasting, organized in January, with more than a hundred different wines from around the world participating. Three of their best wine experts were in charge of the wine assessment.
Our 2015 Silvestris was created just as it was thousands of years ago: only spontaneously fermented grape juice by wild yeasts, and without any other ingredients or additives. The blend is 85% carinyena and 15% Syrah. This is a wonderful wine that shows the potential of Priorat’s rugged land.
During the blind tasting Simon Woolf, Andrew Jefford, and Sarah Jane Evans studied all the details of each wine and scored them accordingly. After the tasting, the three experts were delighted with the results. They were taken aback by the evolution that this market has demonstrated in a few years.
Mr. Jefford has ranked Silvestris 2015 vintage as the third of his top ten best natural wines, giving it 94 points. The Decanter editor describes the wine as
“A nose of billowing primary fruit: rich plums with a floral back note, as if you can smell the blossom which brought the plums into being.”
The three wine experts had selected their top ten natural wines after tasting 122 from all over the globe. The columnist, Andrew Jefford, considers it impossible to ignore the extent to which the experimental line is stimulating the producers and added
“I’m convinced we will see more wine made in this way in future; I’m also convinced that the success rate of natural wines will steadily improve.”
The full article was published in the May 2017 edition of Decanter and written by Simon Woolf. You can download it here.
| Wine Details | Silvestris |
| Varieties | 85% Carinyena 15% Syrah |
| Vintage | 2015 |
| Alcohol | 14.5% |
| Soil | Slate |
| Aging | 60% aged in 400L new French oak barrels 6 months 40% aged in 380L clay amphoras during 6 months |
| Service | Serve at 15ºC. Decant before serving |
| Drinking window | 2017 – 2022 (5 years) |
GRATAVINUM, the magic of Priorat. In the wild and rugged landscape of the Priorat performed a dramatic struggle for survival of the vine. A unique atmosphere that captures any lover nature and wine. In the year 2003, Joan and Josep Cusine, their wives Mª. Elena Jimenez and Marta Casas (Peer winemakers Balta) and winemaker Jordi Fernandez, decided to start their adventure in the national Priorat. Thus Gratavinum, contraction of Gratallops (population where is found the winery) and Vinum wine in Latin, makes a nod to history and to the Romans who introduced the cultivation of the vine in the region centuries ago.