As we speak Ester Nin is co-ordinating six projects all at the same time. Four for DO Priorato, one for Penedés, her native soil, and another for Almansa. This should seem enough information to be able to talk about an exceptionally busy oenologist, but the story does not stop there. Her own signature wine so fascinated Robert Parker and Jay Miller that they awarded it 98 points. Not only that, but a wine she makes together with Daphne Glorian, ‘Clos Erasmus’, was one of the first five Spanish wines ever to be awarded 100 points from the US guru publication, The Wine Advocate. All of this together, clearly makes Ester Nin Llort one of the most prestigious oenologists in Spain to date.

The first thing Ester Nin wants to make clear is that “although it might seem contradictory because of the number of projects I’m working on at the moment, what really interests me is doing things well more than doing lots of different things”. This oenologist, daughter of a traditional Penedés vinegrower, has worked in the vineyard since the age of five and distinctly remembers that planting, pruning, campaign harvesting and green harvesting have always formed part of her home activities, her weekends and her holidays.

On account of her family background, Ester Nin decided to study biology in Barcelona and later, oenology in Tarragona. There she met Sara Pérez, another first-rate oenologist, who is currently developing her talents with DO Montsant, and is daughter of José Luis Pérez, one of the great names in Spanish oenology. Through this personal relationship Ester was able to open the doors to Mas Martinet, the bodega the Pérez family runs in Priorato, where she started working after finishing her studies in 2001, “first in the bodega and later with José Luis in assessment work for different bodegas”, the oenologist explained.

After this important launch, Ester Nin was unquestionably set on an upward course, marked by the development of an ecological and biodynamic viticulture that has more than proved its quality. As a result, in 2004 she started to work for herself, first on her own wine and later on five other projects.

Ester’s own wine is primarily a result of Garnacha grapes, although Cariñena is also present, grown in 70-year-old terraced vineyards. The estate is located in one of DO Priorato’s most solitary regions in the vicinity of Porrera, where the oenologist currently lives. There she makes her exclusive three barrels of wine, transforming them into 1,000 bottles. The wine’s name: ‘Nit de Nin’.

When the oenologist talks about her wine she does it delicately and with care, transmitting her underlying passion. “It’s my plot of freedom, because when you have a boss you’re always, to a greater or lesser extent, dependent on budgets, philosophies, someone else’s way of working. Here all the risk is mine. By experimenting, I stretch my own limits, it’s my toy”, she explained.

Her first wine to come on the market was the 2004 vintage. This wine obtained a rating of 98 points from The Wine Advocate; Robert Parker’s influential publication. This success even surprised Ester, who thinks that the rating was excessive for a first vintage. However, even with such a high benchmark, she believes that the 2005 vintage is even better, “although we’ll have to wait and see what the critics think”.

However, if we were to talk of successes with Robert Parker we would, undoubtedly, have to include Clos i Terrasses, the bodega owned by Daphne Glorian, Ester’s close collaborator since 2004. Their ‘Clos Erasmus 2004’ was one of the five Spanish wines that obtained a rating of 100 points for the very first time ever from Parker’s prestigious publication.