Alfredo Maestro: Preserving Some of Spain's Most Wondrous Parcels

Taken from Jose Pastor Selections

Alfredo Maestro is a prolific producer, always tinkering with different grapes, styles, and incredibly storied old parcels not just in his home of Ribera del Duero but also in the Sierra do Gredos and Valencia. The vineyard trumps everything for Alfredo. He grew up in a winemaking family that moved from the Basque to Ribera del Duero in Penafiel. He followed in the their footsteps and began making wine in 1998. Though organic farming was never negotiable (that was of high importance to him), he taught himself to make wine literally gripping the book on how to do it. Modern winemaking extolled the many conveniences of yeasts, enzymes, and other additives that made a wine look and feel more ‘impressive’, in accordance with the Parker aesthetic of the time. This disconnect between natural farming and non-natural farming eventually stuck a chord within, though, and Alfredo aggressively went the other direction to marry both sides of the process in the bottle. His thrill is in seeking out neglected vineyards in disrepair and cultivating life back into them. It’s a truly beautiful gift — that we get to taste such individuality in each and every bottle. 

According to Alfredo, “[I want to make] easy wines with character imprinted with the earth and the vintage, authentic stories transmitted differently each year and not modified by the hand of the man in the cellar."

Here’s what have in stock (and coming just next week!). I can’t really compete with the lovely writing from Ben over at JPS, so here’s the scratch from him: 

2021 Vina Almate - The first wine that Alfredo made (named after himself: Al-Ma-Te) and is his entry-level Duero wine.  This cuvee is made from fruit sourced from various plots of Tinto Fino (Tempranillo), of varying vine ages located, in Valtiendas at 1,000 meters elevation, as well as Peñafiel, at 700 meters. The wine is fermented in steel vat with 15-20 days of maceration and 50-100% stem inclusion depending on vintage, and raised over winter with one racking: unfined, unfiltered, and no added SO2.

2019 Castrillo del Duero Tinto Fino - From a single vineyard called La Ladera, of 70-year-old Tinto Fino vines grown on clay-loam soils at 960 meters elevation in the municipality of Burgos, Ribera del Duero. Typically 20% whole cluster fermented with wild yeasts in steel vat with 12-15 days of maceration, and raised for 12 months with in neutral French oak.

2022 Garcacha ‘El Marciano’ - Alfredo's main Garnacha bottling, made from 50-90 year-old vines grown on decomposed granite soils at a staggering 1,000-1,200 meters elevation in the Sierra de Gredos mountain range around the village of Navaredondilla...which is known for UFO sightings, thus the wine's name. Grapes are fermented - including some or all stems depending on vintage - with wild yeasts and raised in steel vat.

2022 ‘El Ray de Glam’ - Made using carbonic maceration and comes from two different 100% Garnacha vineyards of varying ages. Half of the cuvee comes from old vines planted on granite soils in the town of Navarredondilla in the province of Avila located in the Sierra de Gredos mountain range; the other half of the cuvee comes from moderately old vines planted on calcareous clay soils in the town of Peñafiel, Ribera del Duero.