The beautiful and mountainous wine region of Bierzo is high in north-west Spain. Riven with valleys, its climate is warm yet generous. The Álvarez de Toledo family goes back many centuries, the first notable moment being in 1472 when the Count Don Garciá Álvarez de Toledo was granted the title of Duke of Alba by Henry IV of Castile. Three decades later, in 1514, his grandson Pedro Álvarez de Toledo y Zuñiga, who later became Viceroy of Naples, married the daughter of the Marquis of Villafranca del Bierzo in the town of Ponferrada,thus linking the Álvarez de Toledo family to the region of El Bierzo, a line which continues to this day.

They make wines from the Godello grape, one of the stand-out indigenous Iberian white grape varieties that has really benefitted from the control that modern winemaking offers and is now enjoying a resurgence in both production and popularity. Some modern examples can be oaked, but this example is a wellcomposed, gently perfumed and discretely almond-infused wine.