One of the first producers to label high quality reds as table wines in Spain, Mauro’s first vintage was 1978. The winery is located in Tudela de Duero, in the vicinity of Valladolid. The village wasn’t included within the boundaries of the Ribera del Duero appellation when it was established in 1982, so for many years their labels could not state vintage, grape variety or aging times. Things have changed since then —nowadays the wines are classified as VT Castilla y León.
The name of the winery is a tribute to Mariano García’s father. García, who worked as a winemaker at Vega Sicilia from 1968 to 1998, is known for his intuition and instinctive abilities, notably when it comes to oak aging. The original winery, an old 18th century Castilian manor house in the heart of Tudela de Duero, still houses some barrels and the bottle cellar but since 2004 winemaking is done in brand new, large facilities on the outskirts of the village.
Mariano's sons now run the business. Alberto is in charge of sales and management, and Eduardo has followed his father into the winemaking side of the business.
Mauro owns 70 hectares of vines in the villages of Tudela de Duero and Santibáñez de Valcorba. Most of them are Tempranillo, but there’s also Syrah, which makes up to 10% of the blend in Mauro, its flagship red (€35 in Spain, almost 300,000 bottles). It boasts an enviable price positioning among Duero producers including those working within the DO Ribera.
The García family has its own style: ripe, rich, almost voluptuous reds, specially in their top labels Mauro VS and Terreus, both of which are Tempranillo single –varietals.
Mauro VS (€65, around 30,000 bottles), which stands for Vendimia Seleccionada (Selected Harvest), is a blend of two vineyards — Carramontemayor in Santibáñez de Valcorba (7Ha) and the highest and oldest vines of La Oliva (14Ha), a north facing vineyard. This is a high area in Tudela de Duero with distinctive, poor chalky soils. Mauro VS, a consistent red with good cellaring potential, was first made in the 1994 vintage.
Top-of-the-range Terreus (€99, 6,000 bottles) was first made in the 1996 vintage. It’s a single vineyard red sourced from Paraje de Cueva Baja and it’s not made every year. It offers concentration and intensity without losing the enveloping, voluptuous texture everyone expects from this producer.
They have recently launched a Mauro white Godello (around €45) from Bierzo but the wine is sold as VT Castilla y León.
The family also has wineries in Toro (Maurodos, altough everyone refers to ir as San Román), Ribera del Duero (Garmón), Rioja (Baynos) and most recently Bierzo (Valeyo). The latter two are small operations run by local partners: Tom Puyaubert of Bodegas Exopto in Rioja and Gregory Pérez of Bodegas Mengoba in Bierzo.
Baynos refers to Baños de Ebro, the village in Rioja Alavesa where they are based. The grapes for Baynos, with a maximum production of 20,000 bottles, come from six hectares of 40- to 100-year-old vines planted on the area's distinctive clay-limestone soils. The wines, a white and a red, are made in a small winery in the centre of the village. The lively, spicy red (€72) is a blend of Tempranillo and 10% Graciano aged for 20 months in French oak. The white (€72) is aged for 20 months in 228-litre Burgundy barrels. It is made from Viura vines, planted together with Tempranillo or found in the cabezadas (upper areas) of the six hectares they grow in the village.
Valeyo (€35) comes from a 3 ha vineyard sitting at 650m elevation in Valtuille de Arriba (Bierzo) on alluvial soils with a sandy-clay-loam texture. It’s mainly Mencía with 5% Godello. It’s fresh and spicy with good potential to develop in bottle.
