Cirerets de Mas Alta: the Priorat wine that pairs with our grill

There are wines that arrive on our wine list and find their place immediately, as if they had always belonged there. Cirerets de Mas Alta is one of those wines: a Priorat that perfectly understands the dialogue with the grill.

Mas Alta: a Belgian passion rooted in llicorella

The story of Mas Alta is one of an imported passion that took root in the llicorella. In the late nineties, Michel and Christine Vanhoutte, two Belgians in love with wine, discovered La Vilella Alta and decided to stay. What began as a personal project took shape with the guidance of French winemaker Michel Tardieu, a key figure in the recovery of quality viticulture in southern France and Priorat. Together they began crafting wines that respect the tradition of the appellation while searching for their own voice: without artifice, without oak that masks the terroir, with the llicorella as protagonist.

Today Mas Alta is a reference point within DOQ Priorat, an estate that has built its own identity without losing sight of the fact that the most honest wine is the one that least hides the land it comes from. Cirerets is their entry point into the world of the appellation: accessible in price for what Priorat usually demands, but without conceding any of the characteristics that define the great wines of the zone.

The vineyard: llicorella costers between 450 and 650 metres

Cirerets is born from the two indigenous varieties that define this appellation: Grenache and Carignan in proportions that vary by vintage, from vines over fifty years old. The vineyards sit on the characteristic costers of Priorat, steep hillsides between 450 and 650 metres altitude where the llicorella—that dark slate that retains the day's heat and releases it through the night—forces roots to dig deep in search of water and nutrients. The result is extremely low yields and grapes of extraordinary concentration.

Viticulture on these terrains is necessarily manual. The gradients do not allow mechanisation, which implies a production cost that few other wines in the world have to assume. That effort translates directly into the glass: in the density of the colour, in the aromatic complexity, in the persistent finish that llicorella wine carries as its mark of origin.

After manual harvesting and careful fermentation, the wine rests for sixteen months in French oak barrels, followed by six additional months in concrete tanks that provide stability without diminishing varietal expression.

Tasting notes

Cirerets presents itself with an intense cherry-red colour with a ruby rim. On the nose we find that combination only Priorat offers: ripe red fruits, floral notes—violet, rose—and a mineral background evoking wet slate. The Carignan contributes its characteristic balsamic aromas and an acidity that tensions the whole, while the Grenache delivers generous fruitiness and body. On the palate it is elegant yet structured, with integrated tannins and remarkable freshness that invites you to keep drinking. The finish is long, with memories of red fruit and that mineral quality that anchors the wine to its origin.

Pairing with our grill

At Carbònic we serve it with our grilled meats, particularly with the old-cow ribeye, where the wine's power finds its perfect counterpoint in the intensity of the aged beef. The tannic structure of Cirerets—present but never astringent—manages the fat of the ribeye in a way few wines achieve: cleansing the palate without erasing the flavour. It also works very well with our seasonal grilled vegetables, especially roasted peppers and autumn mushrooms, where the minerality of the wine and the earthy flavours of the vineyard create a conversation that goes beyond conventional pairing. A Priorat that speaks of its land, and at our table finds the ideal companion.