Parmí, Michele Riva

	Cataluña, España. (Priorat) 4 hectares.
	Parmí. (PAHR-mee)
	Michele Riva. (me-shel-lay REE-vah)
	Michele Riva. (me-shel-lay REE-vah)
	Hand-harvested. No irrigation.
	900 cases.
	Parmí has been part of the Small Vineyards family since 2008.

According to a comprehensive study by UNESCO, the best place on planet Earth to grow grape vines is… Priorat, Spain. Over a century ago Priorat, was abandoned by the last of the monks who had tended the land for four hundred years. Left behind were ancient Cariñena and Monastrell vines, producing some of the highest quality grapes on earth in some of the harshest conditions. Here, the soil is thick, flaky schist, literally packed with iron and minerals. With the heavy marine influence, blistering hot days and cool nights, this moonscape is suitable only for grapes, not even grass. Parmí, a new estate in Priorat, owns vines that are over a century-old, owned by three Italian amici, Parmí approaches the craft of winemaking with the knowledge, convictions, and best practices of Northern Italy, where clarity of fruit reins supreme. How appropriate this mentality is for Priorat! With expert French-oak fermentation, individual grape picking, and a single-bulb cellar sensibility, this estate is truly making some of the most inspired wines in Europe, not just Spain. Parmí is situated at ground-zero for Priorat’s best Cariñena. As fascinating, mysterious, and head-spinning as these wines are, perhaps the wines of Parmí can in fact be summed in one word: searing. The intensity is almost other-worldly–enveloping the nasal passage, penetrating the palate and epithelium, and over-loading those message-carrying scillia that tell our brain what we’re smelling.