About

Territory, the centre of everything

 Palacios Vinos de Finca (PVF) is the realisation of an idea: to place the territory at the centre of a project devoted to producing unique wines. But this does not come at any price. Javier Palacios, the founder of this project, has put his heart, vision, talent and entrepreneurial skills into this trio of wineries whose shared concern is the territory. The notion of territory is what PVF defends in Rioja and Ribera del Duero, the two areas where the company is based, and is the cornerstone of its guiding principles. Javier Palacios and the entire PVF team are deeply committed to the territory, where everything stems.  

The heart 

PVF is Javier Palacios; it is his heart, his vision, his talent and his land, but it is also the team,a group of top-level professionals who seek authenticity above all else.
    The origins of PVF derive from the entrepreneurial nature of Javier Palacios, a Rioja businessman who got involved in wine when he took a stake in Trus, a winery in Ribera del Duero, in 1999. On that year, he started planting his own vineyards, and by 2012 he had full control of the company.
    Then came Nivarius and Proelio, two partner wineries in Rioja with a common goal: to explore the expression of the land, each in its own language.
    Javier was by then "bitten by the wine bug". After visiting Burgundy, he was impressed and captivated by the way Burgundians understand the vineyard and their devotion to the origin, so much so that he instilled this vision in the the project. Nowadays, the guiding principles are clear: to place PVF at the top of  Spanish wine and to ensure that its vineyards are of the highest quality, with exceptional micro-terroirs that are able to produce unique wines.

The vision

For Spanish writer Jardiel Poncela, a farmer is a "man who spends his life looking at the sky, regardless of whether he is religious or not". This is indeed the case, but the focus at PVF is on the soil: territory, geology, composition, orientation... the soil sets the course, and the efforts are directed at detecting and identifying excellent quality micro-terroirs, with the capacity to produce wines with their own personality.
    During a wine trip to Burgundy, Javier discovered a way of farming the land that greatly impressed him and he decided to adopt this approach at his project. This longing to nurture historic vineyards and make singular and unique wines with their fruit inspires the team´s work and guides the viticultural activity in the three wineries, from Piñel de Abajo to Nalda. PVF relies on the soil of its vineyards to produce understandable, pleasant-to-drink wines, linked to their origin and with distinctive personality. A simple challenge to define but a hard one to accomplish, and one that is pursued by all three wineries in the group: Trus, Nivarius and Proelio.

The search 

At PVF nothing is left to chance or intuition. Observation and detailed analysis are the basis of its work, but it is the soil that sets the tone, the element underpinning everything else.
    The team works with the same guiding principles in its three wineries. An in-depth understanding of the soils is essential in order to know exactly the kind of wines that will be obtained and the plants that will be best adapted to these soils. Precision viticulture in its purest definition. This investigation starts with a survey of the soil and the creation of conductivity maps, a parameter that indicates the soil texture down to a depth of around two metres and the retention of humidity in these areas. The resulting data are extrapolated and translated into soil layers from the surface down to the roots of the plants. This information also provides a clear overview of the different types of soil in the vineyard, identifying their wine growing potential based on the plants growing on them. In new plantings, the guidelines for selecting a rootstock are first established
    (instead of being based merely on previous experience or tradition). Next, the clone of the most appropriate variety for that soil is chosen, taking into account factors such as freshness, tannins or volume on the palate, for instance. But the soil is always the beginning, and the changes in conductivity also determine the changes in the composition of each territory, as well as where to dig soil pits to examine these changes and to adapt the plantings to the site's conditions. In addition, other factors that are relevant to farming vines, such as sunlight exposure and orientation, are also analysed.
    For PVF, soils are essential, as they will define the characteristics of the wine emerging from the vineyard. The data collected is used to identify vineyards that are exceptionally good for grape growing, where vines thrive in terms of quality and are capable of delivering their full expression.

The Land

The territory is the origin. Without that tenet, there are no stories to bottle. Understanding the terroir, the precise balance between plant, climate and soil, helps to understand why the territories and the grapes that grow in them express themselves in different ways. PVF works with one of the greatest soil gurus in the world, the Chilean Pedro Parra, to carry out a detailed mapping of the plots in order to apply measured and precise farming techniques that result in the best possible wines on each and every vineyard.
    Parra and his team have thoroughly analysed the characteristics of the soil, using technology that helps to generate the precise DNA for each one of them, to determine their potential for them to be the source of each of the wines.
    Vineyards in Albelda de Iregua and Nalda, at elevations of around 750 metres, Badarán at 650 metres and Briones and San Vicente de la Sonsierra at 480 to 550 metres, create a diverse mosaic of areas which play a key role in the production of PVF's Rioja wines: Nivarius and Proelio.
    Altitude is also one of the most important factors in Ribera del Duero seeking a fresher and more ballance expression of the Tinto Fino variety. Micro-terroirs  that are located in Moradillo, Roa, Peñaranda and Baños de Valdearados. 

The strength

The strength of PVF resides in the team behind each one of the wineries. Led by Javier, winemakers, technicians and cellar staff work each day so that the final result, the bottle of wine, conveys the origin. The goal is to express the painstaking work in the vineyard, the research and, above all, the passion that goes into making honest, genuine, affordable wines, which may be meant for cellaring or for immediate enjoyment, but which are always anchored to the territory.
    Moreover, the project benefits from the involvement of two world-renowned figures in the wine business who have helped the team along the journey: Alberto Antonini and Pedro Parra.
    Antonini is a prestigious Italian winemaker. He studied at the University of Florence, where he is a Doctor of Agriculture, and is also a graduate in oenology from the University of California Davis, with experience in leading wineries in Tuscany, such as Antinori and Frescobaldi. In addition, he is involved in projects in the New World.
    Antonini works with PVF to add singularity, seeking out wines that are easy to drink and understand, as well as direct and with a sense of place. The winemaker is committed to making wines that project the places they come from, rather than merely commercial products: "Our mission is to offer the consumer an expression of how grapes grown in a great terroir produce wines of great interest", says the Italian expert. There are no excesses or disguises, simply the most sincere interpretation of the estate's best terroirs. "We seek the texture, the magical combination of soil, climate and variety that results in wines with finesse, energy and vitality", Antonini adds. We strives for a well-understood typicity, authenticity and honesty with the fruits of the various territories where the wineries are located.
    Pedro Parra, who calls himself a "terroirist", is one of the world's leading terroir experts. Trained in France and with a Master's degree in Precision Agriculture, he studies soils and connects wines with their roots in countries such as Chile (his native land), Argentina or Italy. His friendship with Alberto Antonini has also forged a close co-operation between them —the two of them make up a formidable team, capable of capturing the best that a wine-producing terroir can offer. Parra conducts an in-depth mapping of the vineyards and identifies those that are best suited to producing unique and genuine wines that show the region's typicity —that is the territory's message, not just what everybody does in a specific area. 

The wineries

PVF's fascination with the territory is materialised in three wineries in Ribera del Duero and Rioja. Sustainable, pesticide and herbicide-free viticulture is practised in both regions and the commitment to wines linked to their origin is at the heart of everything.
    Javier's first wine producing venture was Trus, a project designed to be among Spain's top wine categories. To this end, the company has intensified efforts to find prime vineyards in high, cool areas, seeking to make Ribera del Duero wines that combine territory and texture, wines that are pleasant to drink but also have an attractive complexity. Areas such as Moradillo de Roa, La Horra, Baños, Peñaranda, Nava de Roa, Piñel or Pesquera de Duero are the source of wines that represent the finest version of Ribera del Duero in terms of finesse and texture.
Nivarius is a singular and unique winery in Rioja, as it exclusively produces whites with native varieties such as Maturana, Viura, Garnacha Blanca or Tempranillo Blanco in a region that is better known for its reds. These grapes come from selected vineyards in the vicinity of the Sierra de Cameros (a relatively untouched area in terms of grape growing that benefits from an elevation ranging from 700 to 800 metres and an extreme climate that favours freshness), resulting in an innovative project intended to produce fine wines for long ageing. In line with the guiding principle of seeking out unique territories, Nivarius strives to express as best as possible the great potential of Rioja's white varieties grown on high, cool areas.
Proelio is the Rioja red wine bodega. It is focused on the search for vineyards that preserve the diversity of Rioja's grape-growing heritage and are able to produce genuine, honest wines that directly convey a sense of place. At Proelio, we have located high-elevation vineyards and territories that provide a comprehensive overview of the different areas in Rioja. The unique qualities of these exceptional vineyards are expressed through traditional varieties such as Tempranillo, Garnacha and Graciano.

The wines

Single-vineyard wines constitute PVF's greatest asset, and that is what makes them different. However, following the same winemaking principles, its portfolio also includes classic ranges of elegant wines that distinctly express the territory.
    PVF's single vineyard wines are the cornerstone of the company's guiding principles, focused on the territory. Each wine is the result of a careful choice of different sites, with unique characteristics. They deserve to be bottled separately, without any interference, to deliver a clear message of a precious origin that is present in the glass.