Alongside his eight siblings, Alvaro Palacios grew up on the famous Rioja estate of the Palacios Remondo family, so from the beginning, he was destined to be working with wine. He didn't stop until Chateau Petrus, from where he returned after several years of work experience. For a while he was dealing with barrels, visiting the historic wine regions of Spain as a salesman of a cooperage. It was during such a trip that he made it to Priorat, which was almost unknown at the time, and he immediately fell in love with the old terraces of vines lined up since the 12th century and the thin slate (licorella) soil. Since the 1989 vintage, his name has been intertwined with the wine region – his first vineyard here was Finca Dofí, then in 1993, he acquired the legendary grand cru vineyard that had been planted between 1900 and 1940, called L'Ermita. Ever since the early vintages, it has been one of Spain's best-selling and most highly-priced wines.

Finca Dofí was Alvaro's first property of his own. The 14-hectare terraced parcel is located on the edge of Gratallops. Similar to the cellar's top wine (L'Ermita), the base of Finca Dofi is Garnacha, supplemented by 10-15% Cariñena and 1% old white varieties. The organically grown, thick-juiced fruit was spontaneously fermented in oak barrels after destemming, then aged for 14 months in used 10-20-hectolitre barrels. Purity, depth, fine-grained tannins, powerful flavours, with an elegant and harmonious palate. The best alternative to the almost inaccessible L'Ermita.

James Suckling gave it 95 points.