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"The red 2022 Terra de Cuques was produced with a 50/50 blend of Garnacha from clay soils and Cariñena from slate soils from 25- to 40-year-old vines. It fermented with full clusters and indigenous yeasts for seven to 10 days and matured in stainless steel and concrete for eight months. It has 13.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.6 with 4.7 grams of acidity. It feels like the two varieties are very integrated and complement each other, but it was a blend of separate fermentations (the timing for the varieties is very different). It seems to get the best of both worlds; it's harmonious, seamless and round, a little more generous this year, with elegant tannins and a long, dry finish. 28,068 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2023.
Since 2021, Dominik Huber has worked exclusively with concrete and a little stainless steel, and he sold all the oak he had in the cellar. He would like to build a new winery and is buying and planting new vineyards for the white wines and planting Garnatxa Peluda in Montsant. He has started working on the analysis of the soils with Chilean expert Pedro Parra. And he and his winemaker and partner Tatjana Peceric had a baby girl, Filipa, in September 2022. Congratulations! The organic certification of the winery will be completed with the 2024 harvest.
They currently work around 21 hectares, mostly owned and some rented with long-term contracts, allowing them to produce around 100,000 bottles per year. I tasted the 2022s, which was a warmer and drier year (350 liters of rain compared with the 490 liters in 2021), and that is reflected in wines with more body and structure, with lower yields but a healthy crop, and the maceration and extraction was adjusted accordingly. The top wines from 2022 felt very austere and ungiving. I wish I had a time machine to see them in five years or so."
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