Alvaro Palacios Avda. de Zaragoza 8, 26540 Alfaro, La Rioja, Spain

One of nine children born to the owners of Rioja’s respected Palacios Remondo, Alvaro studied enology in Bordeaux, while working under Jean-Pierre Moueix at Chateau Petrus. When he came back to Spain, he did not settle with what his family had established. Alvaro pioneered the abandoned pre-phylloxera vineyards just 60 miles from Barcelona- Priorat. Its unique terroir of steep hills and terraces with extremely low-yielding old vines created something very special with the help of Alvaro’s ultra-modern winemaking techniques. The highlight is the 1.45 hectare single vineyard wine L’Ermita, which was first produced in 1993. It is a blend of 80% Garnacha, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Carinena, and is aged in new French barriques for up to 20 months. The bottle is unfiltered. It has intense concentration, enormous depth, and a complexity which is simply amazing.