Baynos - Mauro Winehouse

Project

The Bodegas Mauro winery in La Rioja can be found in Baños de Ebro. It is the fourth project of the García family, after Bodegas Mauro (Tudela de Duero), San Román Bodegas y Viñedos (Designation of Origin Toro) and Garmón Continental (Ribera del Duero).

Surroundings

Located at an altitude of 421 metres, Baños de Ebro is located in the wine-growing region of the Rioja Alavesa, bordered to the south by the meandering course of the Ebro River and to the north by the Sierra de Cantabria that softens the influence of the Cantabrian Sea. The climate is Mediterranean, with hot, dry summers and an average rainfall around 450 l/mm.

Vineyards

The vineyards are divided into smallholdings, eight hectares spread over small plots with the different varieties of: Viura, Tempranillo and Graciano.
The bush vines range in age of from 40 to 100 years old and are planted on poor soils of calcareous-clay composition. Average yields are 4,500-5,000 kg/ha.
The vineyards are organically cultivated with biodynamic practices and the use of animal traction for vineyard work.

Winery

The winery is in the centre of Baños de Ebro, an imposing traditional restored stone house with three floors, where all the movements of the wine are carried out by gravity, and perforated by a network of underground cellars, some of them date back to medieval times. It is situated in a traditional neighbourhood of wine cellars that was an ancient Roman necropolis. A vestige of that past is the funerary plaque found in the cellar which is dated between the 2nd and 5th centuries.

Winemaking

After the manual harvest in mid-September, the grapes are destemmed and after a short maceration, alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts takes place in oak for the white wine and cement tanks for the red. The wine continues its ageing in 225 litre French oak barrels, half used and half new.