Plácet de Valtomelloso

Alvaro Palacios has spent decades pioneering a new order of fine wine across Spain. He has created some of the country’s most iconic wines by championing terroir and native grapes whose potential had been long overlooked and untapped. Palacios Remondo is his family’s Rioja estate, tucked in the far eastern corner of the Oriental district. For Alvaro, the story in this rugged, high-altitude scrubland is about Garnacha. But Plácet is pure Viura—and it is the only white wine Alvaro makes. (The wine’s name is a play off the word for “approval,” a nod to his father, who had an affinity for white wines). Red or white, by focusing on elevating the native varieties that are expressive of and authentic to this stunning side of Rioja, Alvaro is continuing to reshape the future of Spanish fine wine.

Rioja Oriental is blessed with a warm, dry Mediterranean-influenced climate (unlike Rioja’s west, where the climate is more continental). The soils comprise alluvial deposits of volcanic rock, quartz, and sandstone, interspersed with carbonate and clay-ferrous colluvial materials including lime and sand. At varying depths lies a layer of poor, petrocalcic horizon—with its trademark white color—prized by many for its ability to impart a mineral-driven finesse to the wine. The Viura grapes for Plácet are from a small, 4-hectare parcel in Valtomelloso, within the estate’s La Montesa vineyard; the average vine age is 37 years. La Montesa has an ideal east-southeast exposure on a long slope at the base Mount Yerga, 550 meters/1,804 feet above sea level. Alvaro and his team farm this vineyard organically and there is no irrigation. Harvest— all done by hand with very strict grape selection in the vineyard—was on Sept. 5, 2022.

After harvest, the Viura bunches were partly destemmed, crushed, and pressed. The must was fermented on fine lees in oval wooden fudre at low temperatures (to retain freshness of fruit characters) with eight hours of skin contact and no malolactic fermentation. Aging took place in oval oak barrels for seven months before fining and bottling.

This is a vibrant, elegant wine with incredible finesse. Ripe pear and tropical characters are edged by white floral and wild herb notes. The palate is lush and creamy, balanced by a lovely mineral backdrop and a long, lingering finish.