Bodegas Marañones - Treintamil Maravedies, Sierra de Gredos, Spain (2020)

While not an official DO, the Sierra de Gredos is gaining a lot of attention for its mountains and high plateaux. Despite its proximity to the heat of Madrid the Sierra de Gredos is quite alpine along with weathered slate, granite, and schist soils.

Bodega Marañones is located in the DO of Viños de Madrid in the sub-zone of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, where the Sierra de Gredos meets the Sierra de Guadarrama. Their vineyards stretch from the steep hillsides at the base of the mountains down to gentler slopes near the valley floor – providing them with various terroirs that capture a more Mediterranean expression of the Gredos.

Helmed by Fernando Garcia, who, together with Dani Landi, are the creative minds behind Comando G, Bodega Marañones is farmed organically and manually with the assistance of mules due to the steep slopes of their vineyards. The work in the vineyards focuses on prolonging the vegetative cycle to balance ripeness with acidity and tannin. The yields are low from 20-30 hl/ha for the Garnacha and 10-20 hl/ha for the Albillo. Due to the dry climate, there are seldom any problems with pests or disease. Fernando’s largest hurdle is ironically what makes the property so unique – the elevation and the proximity to the mountains, making these sites vulnerable to late spring frosts. This is most apparent with Albillo, an early budding variety, but it can impact Garnacha. Some single vineyard wines are sacrificed in some vintages to preserve the quality of their two village wines: 30,000 Maravedíes and Picarana.

Fernando tends four different terroirs: Marañones, Andrinoso, Peña Cruzada, and Dehesa. Marañones, adjacent to the cellars, is a north-facing slope of sandy granite soils with patches of gneiss and schist. Andrinoso is their highest elevation site, a high plateau of granitic sand at 850 meters above sea level where they grow some of the Garnacha that goes into 30,000 Maravedies.