Alfredo Maestro - Amanda Rosado de Lágrima Rosé 2021 (13.5% ABV) 750ml
Alfredo Maestro, is a Rock Star "Natural" winemaker practicing organic in Ribéro del Dúero, when I met him he definitely has passion and vigor of innovative natural winemaking techniques. A force to reckoned with at the moment and in the future.
Alfredo Maestro is a winemaker who defies and challenges the norms when it comes to winemaking. He understands that a wine must reflect where it comes from. He therefore eliminates the use of exogenous elements (i.e sulphur, acids, filters and stabilizers). According to Alfredo Maestro, he only really needs three elements to create a wine: the grapes, well-kept vines and healthy soils.
His winemaking laboratory in Peñefiel, a Medieval wine making hamlet complete with a Castle that Don Quioxte probably fought his ghosts at the gates of the moat right on the Ribéro del Dúero River which to my chagrin was very unassuming but the Castle is quite impressive and un-breached citadel.
This is a fuller-bodied rosado with high acidity and notes of tart red fruits, watermelon rind, and minerals; eminently, elevated juicy-juice fruit punch in the most respectful, best way possible. Delicious as an aperitif
varietal: garnacha tintorera (alicante bouschet)region: Peñafiel, Ribéra del Dúero, Castilla y Léon, Spain
style: fresh press Rosé, lagrima, or saignée
farming & cellar: "Amanda" is made from 30-90 year-old Garnacha Tintorera vines grown on clay-calcareous & alluvial soils at 700-1000 meters elevation in the Olmos de Duero valley of Ribera del Duero.“Amanda” is from a north-facing parcel of Garnacha Tintorera near Peñafiel planted in 1953 named El Cuchillejo. Grapes are hand-harvested the 1st week of October, destemmed and crushed, and the free run juice is wild yeast fermented and raised in a mix of steel vat and neutral French barriques (malolactic suppressed due to winter temps), and bottled in February without fining or filtration.
pairing: eminently delicious as an aperitif or with a wide variety of cold tapas, I paired it with a poached pear and shaved chocolate.