Winery Mauro | Spanish Wine Lover

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One of the first producers to label high quality reds as table wines in Spain, Mauro’s first vintage was 1978. The winery is located in Tudela de Duero, in the vicinity of Valladolid. The village wasn’t included within the boundaries of the Ribera del Duero appellation when it was established in 1982, so for many years their labels could not state vintage, grape variety or aging times. Things have changed since then —nowadays the wines are classified as VT Castilla y León.

The name of the winery is a tribute to Mariano García’s father. García, who worked as a winemaker at Vega Sicilia from 1968 to 1998, is known for his intuition and instinctive abilities, notably when it comes to oak aging. The original winery, an old 18th century Castilian manor house in the heart of Tudela de Duero, still houses some barrels and the bottle cellar but since 2004 winemaking is done in brand new, large facilities on the outskirts of the village.

Mariano’s sons have been actively working with him for some time. Alberto is in charge of sales and management and Eduardo has followed his father into the winemaking side of the business.

Mauro owns 70 hectares of vines in the villages of Tudela de Duero and Santibáñez de Valcorba. Most of them are Tempranillo, but there’s also Syrah, which makes up to 10% of the blend in Mauro, its flagship red (€25 in Spain, almost 300,000 bottles). It boasts an enviable price positioning among Duero producers including those working within the DO Ribera.
The García family has its own style: ripe, rich, almost voluptuous reds, specially in their top labels Mauro VS and Terreus, both of which are Tempranillo single –varietals.

Mauro VS (€55, around 30,000 bottles), which stands for Vendimia Seleccionada (Selected Harvest), is a blend of two vineyards — Carramontemayor in Santibáñez de Valcorba (7Ha) and the highest and oldest vines of La Oliva (14Ha), a north facing vineyard. This is a high area in Tudela de Duero with distinctive, poor chalky soils. Mauro VS, a consistent red with good cellaring potential, was first made in the 1994 vintage. It is usually aged for over 30 months, which is somewhat unusual for modern reds in this area, although Mariano Garcia is an expert in this chapter.

Top-of-the-range Terreus (€80, 6,000 bottles) was first made in the 1996 vintage. It’s a single vineyard red sourced from Paraje de Cueva Baja and it’s not made every year. It offers concentration and intensity without losing the enveloping, voluptuous texture everyone expects from this producer.

They have recently launched a Mauro white Godello (around €40) from Bierzo but the wine is sold as VT Castilla y León.

The family also has wineries in Toro (Maurodos, altough everyone refers to ir as San Román) and Ribera del Duero (Garmón).

TASTING NOTES

Mauro 2013 Tinto
Mauro VS 2010 Tinto
Terreus Pago de Cueva Baja 2011 Tinto
See all the wines

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