The AALTO project began in February 1999, in the prestigious wine region of Ribera del Duero, Spain. The founders, Mariano García and Javier Zaccagnini, aimed to create a wine with a distinctive personality, high quality, and a faithful reflection of different villages, integrating them at the end of the aging process to achieve balance and complexity. As the winemaker, Mariano García rigorously controls yields, maximizes respect for the grape, and follows a philosophy of minimal intervention, seeking the maximum expression of each plot’s terroir. Their wines combine power and structure with elegance and complexity.
Several years later, in 2006, the Masaveu and Nozaleda families, both with their own wineries in other wine regions of Spain, joined AALTO, bringing experience and stability to the project, consolidating the winery to the present day.
From the beginning in 1999 until the 2004 harvest, the winemaking took place in rented facilities in Roa (Burgos). In 2005, a new winery was built on a beautiful 15-hectare plot in Quintanilla de Arriba (Valladolid), with the 2005 harvest being the first produced in these facilities.
Currently, AALTO controls 130 hectares of old vines with native clones of Tinto Fino, spread over more than 200 plots in 9 different municipalities, all belonging to the Denomination of Origin of Duero.
Due to differences in altitude and climatic conditions, the vines in each municipality reach their optimal ripening at different times and are harvested individually. Each vineyard is cultivated following the rigorous guidance of winemakers throughout the year, with cultivation practices excluding herbicides and chemical fertilizers, using short pruning, and performing all agricultural operations with a focus on quality.
The age of these old vines ranges from 40 to 100 years, characterized by low yields and exceptional quality.
