Founded in 1999, Aalto is currently owned by Spanish wine groups Masaveu, with wineries in Rioja (Murúa), Rías Baixas (Fillaboa) and Navarra (Pagos de Araiz) and Enate (Somontano) together with Mariano García, who worked as a winemaker at Vega Sicilia for over 30 years and started Mauro in the outskirts of the DO Ribera and San Román in Toro. Founder member Javier Zaccagnini (1954-2023) left the company in 2018 to establish his own winery.
Since the very moment it was released, Aalto was a major success, immediately joining the ranks of the region’s top reds. Mariano García’s expertise and his formidable knowledge of the region significantly contributed to this achievement. The style of the wines is definitely modern: fruit-driven, powerful reds, yet with enveloping, gentle texture adding finesse. They are exclusively made from Tinto Fino, as Tempranillo is locally called. Mariano García brilliantly used a car simile to explain the wines some time ago; he said Alto was “an Audi while Vega Sicilia was a Mercedes”.
In order to achieve complexity and balance, grapes are sourced from 120 hectares in over 200 parcels located in different villages within the appellation. Diversity is not only referred to soils, but altitude, exposure variability and Tinto Fino’s genetic diversity. Grapes from La Horra constitute the core of the blend with varying percentages coming from other villages like Quintanilla, Piñel, La Aguilera, Moradillo, Fresnillo or Baños.
The winery produces two wines and around 300,000 bottles. Aalto (about €38, 300,000 bottles) accounts for the largest part of them while Aalto PS (€90, 40,000 bottles), which stands for “Pagos Seleccionados” (selection of plots), is not made every year. Notably, vineyards destined to this wine can vary significantly from one vintage to another due to extreme climate conditions in the area. In both cases, blending takes place after aging.
