Alvaro Palacios

Alvaro Palacios arrived in a nearly abandoned Priorat in 1989 and left it Spain's most celebrated red wine region. From steep terraces of llicorella slate around Gratallops, he coaxes old-vine Garnacha into wines of extraordinary concentration and lift: the village-blend Les Terrasses, the single-estate Finca Dofí, and at the summit L'Ermita, a hillside of ancient vines that has become one of the world's most sought-after Grenaches. The style has only grown more refined with time — less extraction, more perfume — as Palacios argues ever more persuasively that Garnacha belongs among the noble grapes.