Pilar Garcia

The Place Garcia’s work is tied to Alvarez y Diez in Nava del Rey, Spain, where her focus is white wine. The bodega’s materials are specific: Verdejo and Sauvignon Blanc grown in Rueda D.O, handled for freshness rather than weight. A key reference point is Ermita Veracruz Verdejo, a 100% Verdejo made from estate fruit averaging 75-year-old vines. Its label motif looks to the Ermita Veracruz church above the estate’s old cellar and to the stork nest on the church, linking the bottle to a named building on the property rather than an abstract emblem. That release is also made in small quantities from low-yielding vines between 50 and 85 years old. It is described as crisp, with passion fruit, grapefruit, pear, herbal and mineral notes, balanced acidity, and a long finish.

The Method The cellar language is cool and controlled. Garcia’s Alvarez y Diez wines are generally fermented in stainless steel at controlled temperatures under 17°C, a method used to obtain fresh, fruity, harmonic, and elegant characters. The Verdejo work does not follow a single expression. The different Verdejos respect the fruit of young Verdejo while adding greater complexity and glycerides in the barrel-fermented Reserve bottling, where balance is drawn between acidity and alcohol content. Those choices keep the wines close to their material: fruit first, then shape, then length. Stainless steel protects aromatic clarity, while the Reserve bottling brings a broader frame without losing the point of balance that defines the range.

The Range Ermita Veracruz Verdejo is Garcia’s central signature: 100% Verdejo, estate fruit, old vines, small quantities, and a flavor profile that moves from citrus and orchard fruit into herbal and mineral notes. Its long finish and balanced acidity place it firmly within the bodega’s white-wine identity. The range also includes Lanzos Blanco, a Bodegas Aldial (Alvarez y Diez) wine made by Pilar Garcia in 2017 from 50% Sauvignon Blanc and 50% Viura. That blend broadens the white-wine story beyond Verdejo while staying within the same Nava del Rey cellar. Taken together, the wines show a practical vocabulary: stainless steel, low temperatures, Verdejo, Sauvignon Blanc, Viura, older vines, and a measured approach to acidity and alcohol. Garcia’s role is not presented through spectacle, but through the handling of white grapes in a place where freshness, fruit, texture, and finish carry the work.