Viña Almate is the name of the first vineyard that Alfredo planted and gives the name to his bodega and to Alfredo’s 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 m. elevation, as well as Peñafiel, at 700 meters. The wine is 80% whole cluster fermented in steel vat with 15-20 days of maceration and raised for 4 months in neutral French oak with one racking: unfined, unfiltered, and very low SO2 if any at all. The result is a very pure, lively and classic medium to full bodied Duero wine with notes of red fruits, spice, flowers, and minerals; a great wine to pair with grilled and roasted meats.
ALFREDO MAESTRO, Ribera del Duero - Organic, Natural“Wine made with only grapes, well-kept vineyards, and healthy land.” This is the mantra of Castellano winegrower Alfredo Maestro, a bright light amongst an abyss of industrially farmed, over-ripe, over-oaked, and over-manipulated wine-scape that is the Ribera del Duero these days.Alfredo’s ascendance is unique to Alfredo. His family came to the winemaking town Peñafiel, Ribera del Duero from the Basque Country. Having grown up amongst the vines, Alfredo had a great interest in wine, and, through encouragement from friends, he started making his own wine in 1998. That same year he planted his first vineyard -Almate- on the Rio Duraton near his home. From the begining he farmed organically. In the cellar, Alfredo was working literally “by-the-book”, teaching himself enology from a book and using every trick in it to make a “correct” Ribera del Duero wine: yeasts, acid, enzymes, tannins, color-enhancers, etc. were just some of the techniques utilized. In search of serious “purple-ness”, this is how many of the modern Ribera del Duero’s of today are produced. In the early 2000’s Alfredo had a revelation. He questioned why as an organic farmer would you use chemicals to make the finished wine; he wanted to work as n