The Finnish lawyer Mikko Alkio, who works for a large law firm, came to Barcelona in 2010 so that his children could practice their great passion, tennis. And it was in Barcelona where he discovered in February 2013, in the wine bar La Vinya del Senyor, right next to his admired church of Santa María del Mar, the wines of the Ribera del Duero and Priorat. Only a few months later he could not restrain himself from the temptation to visit the vineyards and villages of Priorat, where he was magnetized by his telluric magnetism.
He took advantage of the confinement due to the pandemic in Finland to study Spanish with a private teacher, devoting an hour and 20 minutes a day, including Sundays, to his learning. Her progress was very fast. On July 25, 2020, he was already able to negotiate the earnest money for the first farm he acquired, in El Lloar. Mikko Alkio explains that “these vineyards are exceptional, they were planted in the winter of 1939, almost at the same time that the last battles of the Spanish civil war were being fought a few kilometers away.” He was the seed of his exciting Clos Alkio project.
In 2020, it acquired a building in ruins on Saperes de Gratallops street, in which there was an old winery from the 13th century. Thousands of kilos of grapes had already been trodden in its old presses eight centuries ago. With the production of the 2020 vintage, it started in the Vinícola del Priorat de Gratallops cooperative. It continued in 2021 at the Clos de l’Obac winery, also from Gratallops. In 2022 he already did it in his own winery with 20,000 kilos of grapes. With the first three vintages he adds up to 50,000 bottles, which he has begun to market this year. It exports between 60% and 70% of its production, with ten references. Soon it will have 14 wines. Finland, India and Belgium are its main international markets.
It hopes to close its first financial year with a turnover of 200,000 euros. The investment in the last three years has exceeded 2 million euros. And he continues to buy old houses in Gratallops to rehabilitate and use them as apartments to house his clients and distributors while he finalizes the start-up of a restaurant next to the winery. He assures that he has done in three years what he had planned to achieve in five. And it plans to place turnover in the next two years between 500,000 and 600,000 euros, and reach a production of between 100,000 and 150,000 bottles in just five years.
He affirms that his business plan is long-term, and points out that “I am neither an investor nor do I take it as a hobby.” It has 25 hectares of its own, of which ten are planted. His winery has just joined the employers’ Associació Vinícola Catalana. He says that they want to respect the tradition of the region but warns that “I have not come to Priorat to copy”.
