Inside Álvaro Palacios's L'Ermita

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title: "L'Ermita: how Álvaro Palacios made Priorat's most collectable wine" description: "The story of L'Ermita, Álvaro Palacios's single-plot old-vine Garnacha above Gratallops, why it sells past 1,000 euros, and how to drink the Palacios range from Camins to Finca Dofí without four figures." date: "2026-06-09" author: "jose" category: "Producer" tags: ["priorat", "garnacha", "alvaro-palacios", "lermita", "spanish-wine"] featuredImage: "/blog/palacios-lermita/featured.jpg" draft: false translationKey: "palacios-lermita"

L'Ermita is the bottle that turned Priorat from a forgotten corner of Catalonia into one of Spain's most collectable names. It comes from a single steep plot of ancient Garnacha above the village of Gratallops, made by Álvaro Palacios. The first vintage, 1993, ran to about 500 bottles. Today it sells above 1,000 euros and scores perfect marks from the people who score wine. This is the story of that plot, the man behind it, and how to drink the Palacios world without four figures.

The man who came down from Rioja

Álvaro Palacios grew up at Palacios Remondo, his family's bodega in Alfaro, in the eastern stretch of Rioja. He trained in Bordeaux under Christian Moueix, the man behind Pétrus, then went looking for somewhere of his own.

He found Priorat in 1989. A small group, led by René Barbier, had just begun to grasp what the region's broken slate slopes could do. Palacios joined them, bought land, and started building a name plot by plot.

Decanter's profile of Palacios frames him as the figure who made the wider wine world look at Priorat again. He did it without abandoning Garnacha, the variety most of Spain had spent decades pulling up.

The plot: L'Ermita

L'Ermita is named for a small hermitage at the top of the vineyard. The vines sit in a north and east-facing amphitheatre near Gratallops, between roughly 400 and 520 metres, on the dark slate the locals call llicorella.

The oldest bush vines were planted in 1910 and 1940, as Decanter's legend piece on the 1993 records. Palacios located and bought the parcel in 1993 and made roughly 500 bottles that first year. The blend has always leaned hard on Garnacha, around 90 per cent, with a little Cariñena and a few old white vines.

Llicorella matters here. The slate holds almost no organic matter, so the roots drive deep for water and the yields stay tiny. That is the whole point. Low yields on poor stone, on a slope too steep for a tractor, give the concentration L'Ermita is known for.

The L'Ermita amphitheatre: old Garnacha on llicorella slate, north and east-facing, above the village of Gratallops.

Why L'Ermita commands its price

Three things stack up. The vines are old and the plot is small, so production is tiny, now around 4,500 bottles a year against the 500 of the first vintage. The slope is worked by hand because nothing else fits. And the scores have been close to flawless: the 2021 took 100 points from both James Suckling and Luis Gutiérrez at Wine Advocate.

Scarcity plus acclaim sets the market. Wine-Searcher lists recent vintages between roughly 1,000 and 1,700 euros a bottle, which puts L'Ermita in the same conversation as Vega Sicilia Único, Pingus and Dominio de Pingus's Flor de Pingus. If you want to understand how a Spanish red climbs to that tier through region and grape rather than a famous label, the guide to Tempranillo across Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Toro walks the same logic through another set of regions.

It also drinks slowly. L'Ermita is built to age for two decades or more, which means the question of when to open it is as real as the question of how to afford it. If drinking windows are new to you, start with the beginner's guide to drinking windows.

If you do own a bottle like this, the hard part is not buying it, it is knowing its window. WineNest tracks bottles by producer and vintage and works out the drinking window for each one, so a wine meant for 2040 does not get opened on a quiet Tuesday in 2027.

The wider Palacios empire

L'Ermita is the summit, not the whole mountain. Around it Palacios built a portfolio that runs across three Spanish regions.

In Priorat, below L'Ermita, sit the single-estate wines: Finca Dofí, his first Priorat bottling, and the newer micro-cuvées Les Aubaguetes and La Baixada. These are serious wines at serious but not stratospheric prices.

In Bierzo, in the north-west, Palacios and his nephew Ricardo Pérez Palacios run Descendientes de J. Palacios, named for Álvaro's father. The grape there is Mencía, grown on slate-heavy slopes across hundreds of small plots. If Mencía is new to you, the guide to the Mencía grape is a good way in.

And back home in Rioja, Álvaro took over Palacios Remondo in 2000 and turned its focus toward Garnacha, in bottles like La Montesa and Propiedad. The thread across all three regions is the same: old vines, native grapes, and a single variety doing the talking.

How to actually drink Palacios without the four figures

You do not need L'Ermita to taste what this house is about. The portfolio is built like a staircase.

Camins del Priorat is the entry, around 25 euros and made in real quantity. It is a blend of Garnacha, Cariñena and Cabernet from younger vines and bought fruit, and it is the cleanest cheap introduction to Priorat's slate character.

Les Terrasses sits a step up at roughly 40 to 50 euros, from older vines and terraced parcels. This is where the llicorella signature, the dark fruit and the firm mineral edge, starts to show clearly.

Finca Dofí is the splurge that still makes sense, around 105 euros in Spain and a little more abroad. It comes from estate vineyards and carries much of the L'Ermita grammar at a fraction of the cost.

For export buyers, all three travel well and turn up regularly at specialist merchants. Camins lands around 25 dollars in the US and 22 pounds in the UK; Les Terrasses sits near 55 dollars; Finca Dofí runs past 120. If the Bierzo side of the Palacios story pulls you in, the Bierzo wine guide maps the Mencía slopes where Ricardo Pérez Palacios works. And if you like the firmer, more structured style, the Ribera del Duero 2018 vintage is a useful neighbour to taste Garnacha against.

Frequently Asked Questions

What grape is L'Ermita made from?

Mostly Garnacha, around 90 per cent, from old bush vines on llicorella slate. There is a small amount of Cariñena and a few old white vines in the blend.

How much does L'Ermita cost?

Recent vintages run roughly 1,000 to 1,700 euros a bottle on the open market, with Spanish retail around 1,300 to 1,400 euros. Older and top-scoring vintages cost more.

What is the cheapest way to try Álvaro Palacios?

Camins del Priorat, around 25 euros, is the entry point. Les Terrasses at roughly 40 to 50 euros is the next step up and shows the slate character more clearly.

A wine like L'Ermita is bought to wait, and waiting is where most of us slip. WineNest keeps your bottles organised by producer, region and vintage, and tells you when each one enters its drinking window, so the special bottles get opened on time. Download WineNest and let it watch the clock for you.