Quinta dos Roques

Dirk van der Niepoort - great ambassador of the fantastic wines from the Douro Valley, is also active and creative in other Portuguese wine regions. His dream has long been to make wines in the microclimates of the Alentejo and Dãoos. The talented self-made winemaker, who likes to wear a hat, found what he was looking for and his crazy idea in these crazy times took shape in the form of Crazy Hatter wines.

He was born 'at home', right above his father's bodega – Álvaro Palacios, Spains star vintner. The scent of wine and barrels must have been lying in the air and thus dictated his further life. He studied oenology in Bordeaux and gathered professional experience at the Château Pétrus, and in London, Dublin, and California. Today, he owns vines in the Priorat county, in Bierzo, and at home in the Rioja, and proves his extraordinary talent with premium wines year after year.

Álvaro Palacios was only 25 years old when he moved to the lonely Priorat in 1989. He left his parents’ vineyard in Rioja (Palacios Remondo) behind, which had grown too small for him. He joined forces with a group of friends to reawaken the sleeping beauty of the Priorat, which the prior inhabitants had mostly abandoned in search of a better and easier life in the cities.