While not an official DO, the Sierra de Gredos is home to a group of young, passionate and innovative winemakers who are pushing the boundaries of viniculture in a region that has long been seen as a place for bulk wine to slake the thirst of nearby Madrid. Even in a country of mountains and high plateaux, and despite its proximity to the sun-baked capital, the Sierra de Gredos seems more alpine, more remote and more rugged than one would imagine this far south. It is the unique combination of high altitudes and low latitudes that defines the potential of Gredos and when you throw in weathered slate, granite and schist soils and add some varieties that are pushed to their limits in such an extreme environment.
Many of the Spanish importers we know are touting what are loosely referred to as ‘Vinos de Madrid’ as the next big thing. Our experience has been rather more mixed, with a a number of wines rather undefined stylistically and others overly ‘reduced’. This area has been producing for a long time but, like other regions in Spain have done, are trying to step out of the bulk image and make more distinctive wines. One that has given us hope in the region is Bodegas Maranones. The creative force here is ‘young gun’ Fernando Garcia, who along with Daniel Landi, has already created the critically acclaimed Commando G wines.
The issue here is that this terroir is, literally, ‘high and dry’. The rather unique growing cycle here has little problem with pests or disease, but the season can be abruptly short and is highly susceptible to spring frosts. A lot of the vineyard work, organic/biodynamic farming and plowing the hillsides using mules, is focused on facilitating a long enough vegetative cycle for the grapes to get ripe.
The Bodegas Maranones 30,000 Maravedies Madrid 2016 is one of two workhorse wines for the project and a great portion of this wine comes from a vineyard called Dehesa, located in the valley with deeper alluvial/sandy soils (the other two sites are above 2500 feet and very stony). Garcia will forgo bottling higher priced, single vineyard bottlings if he feels the ‘entry level’ wines need a boost. Clearly he committed to building a name for the wines. In the cellar, it’s ‘old school’ with whole cluster fermentation and grapes foot-trodden, big foudres and indigenous yeast.
The Bodegas Maranones 30,000 Maravedies Madrid 2016 is 90% Grenache and 10% ‘local varietals’ including Morate, a white grape. This is loaded with Grenache personality but there is a coolness and refinement likely due to the elevation. Very few wines we have tasted from “Madrid” have shown this kind of elegance and we suspect the inclusion of some white grapes might have the same effect as Viognier in Cote Rotie, giving the wine an airier and more floral quality.
Wine Advocate’s Luis Gutierrez is a fan writing, “The fully developed, aromatic and open 2016 30.000 Maravedíes, with nice aromatics and a very pleasant palate. It’s fragrant and elegant, with pungent flavors and very good persistence. This is a superb showing for this bottling…91+ points.” (The ‘+’ indicates the wine may merit a higher review later on, this review was in Dec., 2018)
By the way, if you are wondering about the name, a maravidie is a gold-struck coin of Iberia for about four centuries starting in the 1100s. In 1150, Alfonso VII The Emperor, a real King of León, founds the Monastery of Santa María de Valdeiglesias in Pelayos de la Presa by assembling twelve hermitages of the area. From this moment, the agricultural exploitation of the land will be decided and promoted, with the wine as fundamental crop. In 1434, at the time when Juan II, father of Isabel la Católica, was king, Don Álvaro de Luna, “Condestable de Castilla”, bought the lordship of San Martín de Valdeiglesias from the monastery of Pelayos. The price…30,000 Maravedies.