History Pintia - Vega Sicilia
After the purchase of Vega Sicilia, in 1982, the Alvarez family did not lay idle. In 1992, they created Alión; one year later, Oremus, in Hungary. Their fourth project, Pintia, did not take them so far away – just to Toro, the closest DO to Ribera del Duero. The plan matured around 1995-96. At that time, Toro was not yet fashionable. But like other great producers of Ribera del Duero, like Alejandro Fernández (Pesquera) or Mariano García (Mauro), the Alvarez family understood the huge potential of this virtually ‘virgin’ region. As from 1997, they began buying old Tinta vines in Toro. In the 4 following years, they rehabilitated the vineyard and experimented in the cellar. The biggest challenge was to get fruit and elegance out of a quite rustic type of variety. Their first vintage, the 2001, was launched in 2004. This is when we saw that the Vega Sicilia boys had been right. This first vintage and those that followed were a perfect symbiosis between the austere strength of Toro and the delicacy of the Vega Sicilia wines. Time will tell how they evolve. In 2006, the new cellar in San Román de Hornija was completed. It is a modern building, on a valley slope, from which one can see the bodega Elías Mora – another elegant Toro. Time will tell how these superb wines will evolve.