Callet

            An indigenous grape of Mallorca that’s widely grown on the island, but until recent years wasn’t much associated with high-quality wine.

            A winery that has done a lot to change that impression is Anima Negra (Black Soul), which goes to great lengths to coax the flavor out of this light-colored grape. The 2005 AN was judged by the Age newspaper as the best wine imported into Australia, where they know a little about powerful reds.

The label on the 2006 vintage says that yields from 50- to 80-year-old vines are kept low with pruning, and then “each berry is sorted to ensure only the highest quality grapes are used.” Fermentation is partly in cement and partly in large oak vats, and the wine is aged for 17 months in new oak barrels and an additional two months in cement.

Taking these pains really pays off. This is a noble wine, with the combination of delicacy and power found in top Pinot Noirs. The oak is of course quite prominent, but the main impression is of a long and complex mouthful of rich red fruit. It’s a bottle that I wasn’t ashamed to admit to Lorrie that I paid $55 for.

(And at that, it’s a second wine. In “exceptional years,” Anima Negra releases Son Negre, “a unique wine with a superior quality” and a label featuring a priapic devil.)

This bottle paired wonderfully with grilled lamb chops and a Mallorcan potato-and-vegetable dish called tombet.