Álvar de Dios Tio Uco 2023
£15.95
The wine
Tio Uco is Álvar’s village red from Toro, drawn from three plots of old Tinta de Toro vines, some over ninety years old, with a little Garnacha. Whole-bunch fermented with native yeasts and aged briefly in neutral oak so the fruit sings.
Bright and juicy, it offers fresh berry and cherry over a peppery, mineral lift, with fine, grippy tannins and a vital, dry finish. Toro reimagined with freshness and finesse, and remarkable value. (90% Tinta de Toro, 10% Garnacha.)
The producer
Álvar de Dios
View all Álvar de Dios winesÁlvar de Dios Hernández is one of the most exciting young names in Spanish wine. Raised in El Pego, a village in Toro, he learned his craft in the high Gredos with the team at Comando G before returning home to make wines of rare delicacy from old, often forgotten vineyards.
His approach is uncompromising and old-fashioned in the best sense: organic and biodynamic farming, gnarled bush vines worked by hand and horse, whole-bunch fermentation with native yeasts, and ageing in neutral old oak and concrete. Nothing is added or stripped away. The aim, always, is freshness, light and a clear sense of place.
He works deliberately outside the local DO rules, labelling everything simply as Castilla y León so he can follow the vineyard rather than the regulations. From the sandy, ungrafted vines of Toro to the schist and granite of the wild Arribes del Duero, where the Duero becomes Portugal’s Douro, each wine speaks plainly of its origin.
These are translucent, ethereal reds and whites of real tension and finesse, made in tiny quantities. Among the most eloquent expressions of a new, quietly confident Spain.
