Spain · Catalunya

Alvaro Palacios

Alvaro Palacios is Spain's most consequential modern winemaker, having created the Priorat appellation's modern identity through his landmark wines at the Priorat estate he established in 1989. After training in Bordeaux and at Château Pétrus, Palacios returned to his native Rioja region before settling on Priorat's ancient llicorella schist soils as the location for his project. L'Ermita is the pinnacle: a single-vineyard Garnacha produced from a quarter-hectare parcel of century-old vines on a near-vertical terraced slope at elevation in Gratallops. Finca Dofí is the second wine — a Garnacha-Cabernet blend from estate vineyards — and Terrasses is the entry expression. L'Ermita regularly receives 96–100 point scores and commands prices approaching Petrus and Pichon-Baron: auction peaks have exceeded $1,554 per bottle. Annual production of L'Ermita is under 400 cases, making it one of Spain's rarest sought-after wines. The estate also operates Les Terrasses and Les Aubaguetes as broader Priorat labels. At auction, Palacios averages $256 per bottle across 219 lots — a strong average driven by the significant weight of L'Ermita and Finca Dofí in the auction pool. L'Ermita's terraced Gratallops vineyard requires entirely manual viticulture due to the slope gradient, adding the labor cost component that helps explain the wine's premium pricing relative to Finca Dofí.