2014 Bodegas Mauro Cosecha Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon Spain 750 ml

Vega Sicilia pedigree for a “Serious Vintage of Mauro”

Mariano García, the man behind the 93-point 2014 Bodegas Mauro, was just 24 years old when he was named head winemaker at Ribera del Duero’s legendary Vega Sicilia. During García’s three decades guiding Ribera’s marquee winery, the now-famous region achieved DO status, and in 1980, Garcia founded Bodegas Mauro.  2014 is a “serious vintage of Mauro,” according to Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, boasting power, fine tannins, and “very good freshness.” Only 208 cases made it stateside, and the lion’s share came to us. This is a wine to drink now, or rest for a few years: Classic Spain, legendary winemaker, and an under-the-radar price. Released at $50, just $39.99 per bottle and a mere 250 bottles to go around.

The fact that Spain’s Ribera del Duero, home of world-famous Vega Sicilia, Pesquera, and the country’s rarest wine, Dominio de Pingus, does not hold the country’s lofty DOCa designation, can be mind-boggling. But as Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson point out, it may not matter, as “Two of the most successful producers in the region are not even within the DO boundaries.”

Bodegas Mauro, in Tudela de Duero just to the west of the Ribera DO, is one of those two producers. Mariano García, whose work at Vega Sicilia put fashionable Ribera on the map, is now focused on Mauro, a blend of Tempranillo and Syrah grown in the poor clay and limestone soils of Tudela and aged for 15 months in French and American oak. The finished product boasts the hallmarks of fine Ribera: Richness, ripe black and red fruits, and “licorice, chocolate and smoke,” according to Wine Spectator.