Instabile No.11 Alter Ego 2017

The Vins Nus series by Alfredo Arribas is a family of minimally interventionist wines from the north of the region. They hail from high-altitude vineyard sites and represent the more radical alternative to Arribas’ wine lines from Montsant and Priorat. Characterised by controlled restraint, they are produced practically without the perceptible influence of oak barrels, without excessive extraction, without sulphites and enzymes. With a distinctive tannin structure as their backbone, they are designed for several years of bottle maturation.

The InStabiles are wines from the Vins Nus series produced without any intervention whatsoever and eschewing both provenance and vintage consistency. They are studies in the art of “assemblage”, the marriage of grapes through traditional, artisanal cellar work – Wine Craftwork, as Arribas likes to call it. The numbers in the series denote the ongoing projects within the range.

The InSTabile Alter Ego is the 11th project in the series, made from over 80-year-old pre-Phylloxera Garnacha, whose grapes yield wines of unique intensity. Grown on limestone and clay at 450-500 metres, they were fermented slowly and spontaneously in large steel tanks and subsequently matured in old 600-litre barrels. Bottled unfiltered and unfined, the wine displays a light natural haze.

Garnet red with a light haze.

On the nose it presents itself as earthy with floral and spicy aromas. Beetroot, rose, tea tree oil and long pepper paint a picture of a wine whose maturation and emerging development elevates it beyond the context of often young-drinking naturals, lending it an additional aromatic dimension. Fully ripe red pepper reminiscent of Piment d’Espelette gives it a peppery character and frees it from banal fruitiness. A wine for the patient, one that develops over days and continually reveals new facets.

The 2017 Alter Ego, InSTabile No 11 from Alfredo Arribas’ Vins Nus series, is spicy on the attack, mature and transparent, whilst being powerful with gripping texture and ethereal, cool structure. Multifaceted and complex, the fine acidity is enveloped in fine-grained and stimulating tannins, aromatically the fruit is constantly countered by spice. With good bite and peppery notes, it is gripping on the palate and self-assured with an invigorating cool finish.