AALTO was born in 1999 in the prestigious wine region of Ribera del Duero (Spain). The founding objective of Mariano Garcia and Javier Zaccagnini in AALTO was to produce a wine that showed a distinct personality, of very high quality and a faithful reflection of different villages, assembling them at the end of the aging process to gain balance and complexity. Mariano García made his first vintage in 1968 at Vega Sicilia, where he developed his professional work as technical director of this winery for 30 years. As winemaker, Mariano García rigorously controls yields, respects the grapes to the maximum and his philosophy of minimal intervention pursues the maximum expression of the terroir of each plot. His wines combine power and structure with elegance and complexity.
From the beginning in 1999 until the 2004 harvest, the winemaking was carried out in rented facilities in Roa (Burgos). While the project was being consolidated, the search for a new site for a new winery began. A beautiful 15-hectare plot in the municipality of Quintanilla de Arriba (Valladolid) was chosen.
Aalto's winery in Quintanilla de Arriba
The first phase of the new winery was completed in 2005, being this vintage the first to be produced in these facilities.
The winery currently controls 130 hectares of old vines of native clones of Tinto Fino, distributed in more than 200 plots located in 9 different municipalities, belonging to the Duero Denomination of Origin.
Due to the differences in altitude and climate, the vineyards in each municipality have different optimum ripening dates and are harvested individually. Each vineyard, whether owned or leased, is cultivated following the strict guidelines of the winemakers throughout the year, with cultivation without herbicides or chemical fertilizers, short pruning and with all cultivation operations focused on quality.
The age of the old vines ranges from 40 to 100 years old, with very low yields and exceptional quality.
