Oh, how much do we love the wines of Alvaro and his cousin? A lot, is the simple answer and the reason is purity. Alvaro is driven by producing and tasting, even absorbing, great wines. After the civil war and the isolation and poverty that the Spanish people endured for decades, Alvaro`s training and experience in France taught him what could be achieved in winegrowing. After criss-crossing Spain selling barrels he began to identify high quality plots of land and saw that as in many parts of France, those selected by the monasteries centuries earlier were often the best.

Eventually at the age of 25 he left home, sold everything and started a project in Priorat, struggled for years and his wines now are the result of that early and continuing `passion` in the true sense including suffering, enthusiasm and joy. The holdings now extend to Bierzo and Rioja. Alvaro is nowadays prepared to admit that he understands viticulture - he says his arm is rooted in the rock like a vine, but claims to know nothing yet about wine making. His humility isn`t false, even if he is grossly underestimating his mastery of the craft. This is Spain`s best winegrower and he is still developing. (CW 22/07/14)