ACÚSTIC CELLER | Ritme Negre | Priorat | 2018
grenache | carignan

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Today we are going to review a wine that comes from one of Spain’s most famous wine-growing regions – the mighty Priorat – Ritme Negre Priorat 2018 by Acústic Celler. This wine is a blend of 45% Carinyena (local name for carignan) and 55% Garnatxa Negra (local name for grenache), where grenache forms the wine’s main body and structure, while carignan add complexity to the blend and brings to the forefront those dehydrated red fruits notes that are characteristic to many Priorat wines. The grapes are sourced from old vineyards in the Priorat region: El Molar, El Lloar, Porrera, Cornudella, Poboleda, Bellmunt – all planted on 300m to 700m altitude on black slate and quartz soils, famously known as llicorella. Acústic Celler was founded in 2003 by Albert Jané, who started his own winery in a 200-year old cellar in the tiny town of Marçà and began to piece together vineyard plots across the renowned Montsant and Priorat regions. Ritme is the estate’s youngest red Priorat wine, aged for 10 months in lightly toasted french oak barrels and big, 5000-litre oak vats. Ritme (spanish for rhythm) looks to express the rhythm and essence of the Priorat DOQ, manifested as a blend of native, indigenous varieties. That said and without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results.
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
colour: medium ruby color
clarity: hazy ruby shades on the rim

//Olfactory
intensity: clean & dusty
fruit profile: red fruits
__red fruits: red cherry | cranberry | sour cherry | red plum | red currant | goji berry | pomegranate skin
fruit character: ripe

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | earth
__spice: red pepper | anise | cloves
__oak: sun-dried oakwood | cherry tree wood | rooibos tea | sweet tobacco
__earth: slate | iron | soil dust
primary layer: fruit & earth

//Palate
sweetness: bone dry
acidity: high
alcohol: high
tannin: high
__grip: fine
balance: good
__dominant: acidity
body: round | full body

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits
fruit character: ripe
non fruit: spice
finish: long
aftertaste: seedy-crisp

//Scoring
ACÚSTIC CELLER | Ritme Negre | Priorat | 2018
variety: grenache | carignan
country: Spain
region: Catalonia | Priorat
rating: 94.0

//Conclusion
maturity: developing | age for 3 to 5 more years
verdict: great | a must try wine

//Prediction
predicted rating: 90

//RP Rating
actual RP rating: 91

//All Ratings
The critics’ rating distribution:

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This is definitely a great wine of Spain and, with a total of 94.0 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Verdict: this is a firm, round and complex wine blend with an expressive nose and an extracted palate. The wine is still developing, therefore we would recommend to give it another 3 to 5 years of bottle ageing, in order to allow it to reach its full potential, as this is a wine with a very good ageing potential. On the nose the wine brings ripe red fruits with a nuanced dusty accent in the foreground, followed by an earthy-irony background and a spicy layer in between the two. On the palate the wine delivers exuberant acidity, fine-grained tannins and quite a touch of alcoholic warmth showing through on the mouthfeel, which leads to a very appealing, seedy-crisp finale. All in all, this is a well structured and nicely balanced wine blend that is mixing power with finesse, with quite some hints of local terroir. Our recommendation is to pair it with naturally scented meats, like for example tournedos rossini or peppercorn-crusted fillet mignon. Cheers!

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© The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. Just remember that there are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.