Alfredo Maestro, “Amanda Rosado” 2020

Alfredo Maestro is one of the lone Ribera del Duero winegrowers to work naturally, that is, to cultivate organic grapes (applying biodynamic preparations and utilizing the buried horn/manure practice in order to cultivate a robust microbial life in the soil, for instance) &, most uniquely in the region, to be additive-free in the cellar. Alfredo’s story starts in Basque country where previous generations of the Maestro family had lived before moving to the city of Peñafiel in Ribera del Duero. His family did have a small plot of vines in the famous highlands of the Ribera among which, Alfredo often cites, he grew up. This speaks to the heart of his project, an original enamoration of the plants themselves, so farming has always come first and foremost. It’s the literal bedrock of a good wine. This is particularly telling in his typical line of his range: “Wine made with only grapes, well-kept vineyards, and healthy land.” That “healthy land” is part of the tripartite and there is not simply a focus on a well-kept vineyard shows the holistic approach to the final product that Alfredo takes. Among the pioneers of low-intervention winegrowing in Spain, Alfredo’s been operating for over two decades across 20 hectares of biodynamic vines that he owns in addition to another 20 he rents, with all the soils a particularly useful combination of limestone & granite. Pure, pure, pure wine from a bona fide legend.

100% Garnache Tintorerea from high elevation vines grown on calcareous-clay soil. The grapes are hand-harvested, direct pressed into stainless steel and fermented with wild yeasts. Despite the lack of skin contact, the red flesh of the grapes gives the wine a deep, crystalline red hue. Ultra refreshing and pleasantly tart, with a cool, smoky finish and a brush of tannin.