Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The red 2014 Mauro is mostly Tempranillo with some 10% Syrah from different vineyards in the villages of Tudela de Duero, Traspinedo, Santibañez and Quintanilla de Onésimo. It matured in oak for some 16 months. 2014 is a serious, balanced year, still a powerful wine but with better integrated oak. In fact, they told me they have started using 4,000-liter oak foudres for the aging of this wine and the oak feels different. There is also some earthiness coupled with the very fine tannins. This is a serious vintage of Mauro, in the house style, with very good freshness.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.