Located in San Martín de Valdeiglesias, a village in Gredos that belongs to the province of Madrid, the winery was founded by J. Fernando Cornejo, a lawyer, sociologist and businessman, but has been part of the Alma Carraovejas group since 2021. The progress of these wines since their launch in the 2000s has been remarkable, thanks to the efforts of winemaker Fernando García, one of the two partners behind Comando G. Javier Blanco, who also oversees Ossian Vides y Vinos, is currently in charge of winemaking.

The high altitude vineyards are mostly spread in plots around the villages of San Martín de Valdeiglesias and Pelayos de la Presa. All Marañones wines, from the Garnacha-based reds to the Albillo Real whites, share this character. The presence of Syrah has been reduced to avoid the heavy candied fruit notes that seemed to mask the floral, red fruit, earthy and mineral aromas present in most of the wines.

The winery farms 25 hectares of 50-year old bush vines that lie on granite hillsides and slopes (650 to 800 metres). There are four main sites: Marañones, Andrinoso, Peña Cruzada and Dehesa. Some plots are planted in narrow spaces so mules are used to plow the land.

Vinification is done separately, with indigenous yeasts and whole bunches including stems for the reds and wines are aged on large French oak barrels (500 to 700 litres) and foudres.

The wines

All the wines are produced in very small quantities. The range is inspired in the Burgundian philosophy and includes regional, site or lieux-dit and single vineyard wines. The entry-level red is the regional wine 30,000 Maravedíes (12,000 bottles, €13), an excellent introduction to Garnacha from San Martín de Valdeiglesias.

Marañones (11,000 bottles, €27) is the lieux-dit red. The grapes come from 50 to 70-year-old Garnacha plots on the site of the same name. The single-vineyard Peña Caballera comes from a 1.5 ha. old vine Garnacha plot located on the upper part of the Marañones estate at 850m elevation. Thanks to its north orientation, grapes ripen slowly.

The labels were restyled in the 2022 vintage and there are some changes in the white range. Picarana (18,000 bottles, €31) has been renamed Marañones and Pies Descalzos has taken the name of the site it comes from: Peña Cruzada.