Wine by the winery Aalto

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One of the greatest exponents of the Ribera del Duero

Aalto was founded in February of 1999 by Mariano García —who for 30 years was the technical director and oenologist of Vega Sicilia— and Javier Zaccagnini —who was the Director of the Regulatory Council of D.O. Ribera del Duero for 6 years— when they both decided to join their abilities and experience to start a unique project. Their aim was to produce wines that, from the first moment, showed a differentiated personality, where the power and the structure with constitute their elegance and complexity. Nowadays, and since it was founded in 1999, Aalto Bodegas y Viñedos has continued its unstoppable path and has been able to place its wines among the best ones in the world.

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Winery: Aalto

Aalto 2020

One of the great wines of the Ribera de Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto 2020
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93
Decántalo
94
Parker
94
Atkin
Price
€36.50
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Aalto PS 2020

One of the most sought after wines from the Ribera del Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto PS 2020
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95
Parker
94
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96
Suckling
Price
€83.60
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Aalto Magnum 2020

One of the great wines of the Ribera de Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto Magnum 2020
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93
Decántalo
Price
€78.45
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Aalto 3 Liters (Jeroboam) 2020

One of the great wines of the Ribera de Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto 3 Liters (Jeroboam) 2020
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93
Decántalo
94
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Price
€169.50
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Aalto 5 Liters 2020

One of the great wines of the Ribera de Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto 5 Liters 2020
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94
Atkin
Price
€309.00
VAT inc.
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Aalto PS Magnum 2020

One of the most sought after wines from the Ribera del Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto PS Magnum 2020
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94
Atkin
96
Suckling
Price
€190.00
VAT inc.
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Aalto PS 3 Liters (Jeroboam) 2020

One of the most sought after wines from the Ribera del Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto PS 3 Liters...
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94
Atkin
96
Suckling
Price
€485.00
VAT inc.
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Aalto PS 5 Liters 2019

One of the most sought after wines from the Ribera del Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto PS 5 Liters 2019
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94
Peñín
94
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Price
€825.00
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Aalto PS 5 Liters 2020

One of the most sought after wines from the Ribera del Duero

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto PS 5 Liters 2020
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94
Atkin
96
Suckling
Price
€860.00
VAT inc.
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Aalto Blanco de Parcela 2020

The first white wine from Aalto

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto Blanco de Parcela 2020
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€44.50
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Aalto Blanco de Parcela 2021

The first white wine from Aalto

Spain   D.O. Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León)

Aalto Blanco de Parcela 2021
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90
Parker
Price
€44.95
VAT inc.
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More about Aalto

When we mention Aalto we necessarily have to mention its creators, Mariano García and Javier Zaccagnini. Mariano García started off in oenology at Escuela de la Vid y el Vino, in Madrid, and he carried out his first harvest in 1968 in Vega Sicilia, where he developed his work as a technical director of this firm until 1998. In this stage he was the main creator of the progressive modernization of the wines, adapting them to the new times and reducing the ageing times in barrels. From 1980, the multiple trips linked to his professional activity allow him to compare experiences and knowledge with other oenologists and winemakers in different wine producing regions. This fact led him to found his family winery Mauro in Tudela de Duero and later Maurodos in San Román de Hornija (D.O. Toro). For quite a few years he has shared the direction of both wineries with his sons Alberto and Eduardo and, at the same time, in 1999 he became the founder, partner and adviser of the Aalto wineries. Currently, Mariano is considered one of the best winemakers in the world.

Javier Zaccagnini was born in Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, in the Marco de Jerez, and he has great-grandparents who were winemakers. He studied industrial engineering in times when he was not yet interested in wine. Until he was professionally joined Massimo Galimberti in the Vinoselección project. After a few years he was claimed by the Ribera del Duero Regulatory Board because they wanted a director who was not an oenologist, someone who contributed with a business mentality.There, he was the Director from 1992 until 1998, until he founded Aalto Bodegas y Viñedos in 1999. From 2005, he started the Ossian project, in Rueda, with white wines, owned by him and Ismael Gozalo until 2013, when the latter decides to leave the company. However, without leaving Aalto at any time, in 2007 he embarked on his first winemaking project on his own, Sei Solo, with nine plots in six hectares of vineyards between 60 and 90 years old in La Horra, one of his favourite places, from which he makes the red Sei Solo, and Preludio as second wine.

History of the winery

Until the 2004 harvest, the wines were produced in rented facilities in Roa (Burgos), while the project was consolidated and they searched for a location for their own winery. In the end they decided on a beautiful plot of 15 hectares located in the municipality of Quintanilla de Arriba (Valladolid), where the first stage of the winery was concluded in 2005, already producing in those new facilities the harvest of that year. They designed and built a modern winery exclusively following criteria to optimise the production process, with a cooling chamber to cool the grapes, loading of deposits by gravity, production in concrete, wood and steel deposits —the latter self-designed in a truncated cone-shape— a large room for malolactic fermentation in barrels and two underground warehouses for the ageing of wines eight metres below the ground.

Work philosophy

Mariano García rigorously controls yields, respects the grapes to the maximum and his philosophy of minimal intervention, searching for the maximum expression of the terroir of each plot. Currently, they cultivate 110 hectares of old vines with old clones of Tinto Fino, of very low yield and with exceptional quality. There are almost 200 small plots, located in 7 different municipalities of the Denominations of Origin: Roa, La Horra, La Aguilera, Fresnillo, Fuentelcésped, Moradillo and Baños de Valdearados, all in the province of Burgos and at altitudes ranging from 915 metres (Moradillo) to 804 metres (La Horra). Apart from these old vineyards, in two villages in the province of Valladolid (Quintanilla de Arriba and Piñel de Abajo), the winery has its own vineyards planted with a selection of old clones of exceptional quality, which after 12 years they have decided to start adding to the wines. Each vineyard, whether owned or leased, is cultivated following strict guidelines throughout the year, with a cultivation without herbicides or fertilisers, with short pruning and with all cultivation operations focused on quality. The harvest is always performed by hand in small boxes, and the production of each vineyard is independently managed in the winery, separated by villages and areas, vinified in different deposits, and with individual treatment also during the ageing period.

From the beginning, the founding aim of Mariano and Javier is to produce a very high-quality wine, which is the true reflection of the diversity of Ribera del Duero terroirs, separately producing the grapes from several villages and assembling them at the end of the ageing process to attain balance and complexity.

The production of Aalto is of around 250,000 bottles, although it can vary from a some years to others, depending on the harvest, although the production of AALTO PS never exceeds 20,000 bottles.

On the other hand, Aalto Bodegas y Viñedos calculated and offset the emissions of greenhouse gases generated by its activity during the year 2015 and it has made a commitment to reduce them. This made the winery worthy of the seal that accredits a status "ZeroCO2" for the products made this year.

After 16 years of activity, Aalto Bodegas y Viñedos has become a reference in Ribera del Duero, where its wine AALTO PS has been voted several times as the Best Red Wine of Spain, and the winery has been chosen in Paris as one of the 100 best wineries in the world in the book published by the prestigious critics Michel Bettane and Thiery Dessauve.

Wines from Aalto Bodegas y Viñedos 

Aalto and Aalto PS, the wines from Aalto Bodegas, build their personality in the old vines of Fresnillo, the fineness and elegance of those of La Aguilera and Baños, the energy of the Tempranillos of La Horra and Roa, the strength of those of Piñel and the strong personality of the grapes of Moradillo and Quintanilla. A group of vines that contains the incredible diversity of climates, soils and nuances of Ribera del Duero.

AALTO is made exclusively from Tinto Fino, from very old vines, aged between 40 and 80 years. They come from vineyards located in seven different villages of Ribera del Duero, plus the young grapes from the vineyards they own in Quintanilla and Piñel. They are harvested by hand in small 15-kg boxes. They are thoroughly inspected, bunch by bunch, on a selection table. Then they are aged for 18 months, 50% in new French oak barrels, and the other 50% in French and American oak barrels that are from one to three years old. It is very complex on the nose, with fruity aromas of ripe strawberries, blueberries and black plums, as well as tobacco, coffee and liquorice, vanilla and spicy and mineral notes. In the mouth it is amiable, ample and elegant, with a very balanced tannic structure, with the creamy nuances of the wood perfectly integrated. Complex, long, tasty, with a considerable freshness at the end. Among many other awards, it is worth mentioning that the prestigious Wine Spectator magazine awarded AALTO 2012 a score of 94 points, which placed it in the sixth place on the list of the best 100 wines of 2015.

AALTO PS (Pagos Seleccionados- selected farms) is also made exclusively with Tinto Fino from old vines, aged between 80 and 100 years. They come from a selection of farms from the best vineyards in La Horra, La Aguilera and Fresnillo. They are harvested by hand in small 15-kg boxes. They are thoroughly inspected, bunch by bunch, on a selection table. Then they are aged for an average of 20 months in 100% new French oak barrels. It is always an intense, powerful, concentrated and lingering wine, with complex aromas of liquorice, spices, graphite, toast and tobacco, on a fruity base typical of the very ripe Tempranillo. In the mouth it is ample, fresh and elegant, with silky and well structured tannins, blending with the wood in a feeling of perfect integration. It is a long and harmonious wine that, although it can be drunk when the winery launches it on the market, it will also improve with the years it stays in the bottle, gaining structure and complexity.

Situation of Aalto