Aalto Bodegas y Viñedos

Cantina e Vini

AALTO is a wine project founded in February 1999 by Mariano García and Javier Zaccagnini in the prestigious Ribera del Duero Spanish wine region. Aalto winemaker Mariano García had been in charge of the wines at Vega Sicilia for 30 years, and managing director, Javier Zaccagnini had been the director of Ribera’s regulatory body, the Consejo Regulador, for six years. Their aim was to obtain the highest possible quality from the terroir of Ribera del Duero and develop a great wine that, after 15 to 20 years of serious work, based on the expertise of Mariano and the management of Javier, would be comparable in quality to the great wines of the world. To be comparable in prestige would probably take about 100 years but the case of AALTO is different: in less than 16 years Mariano and Javier have achieved their goal.The key to AALTO’s complexity is the choice of the best fruit from across Ribera del Duero’s diverse terroirs. We now cultivate 110 hectares of old block Tinto Fino vines, made up of 200 plots, none bigger than 1 hectare sourcing from 9 different villages within the region. The top villages include Roa, La Horra, La Aguilera, Fresnillo and Moradillo. Each plot is harvested and handled separately, with different oak treatments. Up to the 2004 vintage we were making our wines at rented premises in Roa (Burgos) while our new bodega was being built in a 15 hectare estate that we own in Quintanilla de Arriba (Valladolid). We designed and built a modern winery following strict criteria to ensure optimal winemaking conditions. We use a low temperature chamber to cool harvested grapes prior to de-stemming and harness gravity to move grapes and musts around the winery, thus avoiding aggressive pumps. We ferment in wood, concrete and stainless steel, employing tanks designed by us. Our two underground oak- ageing halls offer excellent natural conditions to allow perfect malolactic fermentation in wood and gentle, controlled barrel ageing.