"Alfredo Maestro’s family came to Peñafiel from the Basque Country. Having grown up amongst the vines, Alfredo had a great interest in wine and started making his own in 1998. From the beginning he farmed organically, yet in the cellar he worked literally “by the book,” teaching himself enology from a textbook and using all the tricks to make a “correct” Ribera Del Duero wine: cultured yeasts, acids, enzymes, tannins, colorenhancers, etc. In the early 2000’s Alfredo had a revelation: as an organic farmer, why should he use chemicals to adjust the finished wine? He wanted to work as naturally in
the winery as he did in the vineyard, as he puts it "to better tell the story of the land." Alfredo began eliminating exogenous products, and by 2003 he was making wine without any additives whatsoever, including sulfur.
Over the past several years, Alfredo has been seeking out old, neglected, high elevation parcels around Castilla Y León, and more recently in nearby Sierra De Gredos Mountains west of Madrid. He currently has several old-vine parcels of Tinto Fino, as well as Garnacha, Garnacha Tintorera, and Albillo - varieties that were once embraced in the region, but have fallen out of favor due to the fascination with producing a 100% Tinto Fino wine. He has two small bodegas, one located in his native Peñafiel where his father helps in the bodega, the other in the Navalcarnero area southwest of Madrid. He makes some of the most singular white and rosado wines in the region, and his tintos are remarkable for their purity and elegance.
El Rey Del Glam is from two sources of Garnacha, one in Ribera Del Duero at 700-920m and the other at 1,100m in the Sierra De Gredos mountains outside of Madrid. Grapes were hand-harvested the first week of October due to high elevation, wild yeast fermented in steel vat whole cluster and without crushing (carbonic maceration), raised over winter in vat, and bottled in February without fining, filtration or added SO2. This is a medium-bodied wine with layers of juicy fruit and spice, meant to be drunk young when the wine is at its most youthful. Delicious with barbecued meats and grilled
vegetables." --importer Jose Pastor