October is upon us and I thought I would start the season with the latest incarnation of one of our all-time favourites: Mauro VS 2021. First to say well done to those of you who picked up Mauro and Tereus 2021 before the ratings came out. The stock sold out in a flash after the Wine Advocate review was published.
VS is normally held in the barrell (and bottle) for few months longer hence delayed release, but it was worth a wait. To complement it, I will also release their white wine - Mauro Godello 2022 which is here and ready to go.
Mauro Godello 2022 ZR -17+; WA 92+
It seems like yesterday when I tasted barrell samples of the inaugural 2013 vintage of this back in 2014. The idea was to use the best of the white Burgundy winemaking practices with local grape variety (Godello) to make something special and unique. Some 10 y later, the vineyards have reached maturity delivering high quality, refined and stylish juice. After a light crushing, a slow fermentation takes place in 500 L barrels (20% new) at very low temperatures to retain as much of the natural Godello aromatics as possible. It spends up to 10 months in barrels with regular battonage (lees steering) and is bottled without malolactic fermentation or filtration. The result is bright and crisp, lip-smacking wine dominated by fresh citrus, red grapefruit and Granny Smith apples underlined by fine toasty character. It feels like a love child between a vintage Champagne and a fine, modern style white Burgundy. It also ages effortlessly adding complexity; I have recently had 2017 and 19 in Spain and still have couple bottles of 2014 which are now at their peak. My feeling is that because it is so unique, and it is difficult to compare with anything else, both Gutierrez and myself are being bit stingy with our ratings. This is a very fine expression of Godello and a very fine wine indeed – around 12 000 bottles are produced and we get only360 for the UK.
The Wine Advocate - Luis Gutiérrez - 92+
A varietal white from Bierzo from Villafranca del Bierzo and Valtuille de Arriba, the 2022 Godello fermented in new and used 500-liter barrels, where the wine matured with the lees for 10 months. 2022 was warmer, riper and lower yielding, and the wines have higher ripeness and more body and development, while keeping the alcohol at 13% and a low pH of 3.1. This is creamy and spicy, and the palate shows more restraint and austerity, with some oak flavors to be integrated with a little more time in bottle. 12,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2023. Drink Date - 2025 - 2028
Mauro VS 2021 - ZR -18+; WA 96+
As usual, I have tasted this couple of times in barrel at the winery, then immediately after bottling at our spring tasting and most recently with importer in Denmark and in our shop last weekend.
The VS never fails to deliver - in this case both as the great vintage that is 2021, and the classic Garcia style Duero red which makes VS a stand-out wine year after year. it comes from 2 coolest, high altitude vineyards (Traspinedo and El Rosal) which give the wine great structure and capacity to age - a real vin de garde. Garcias somehow manage to produce powerful yet fine and elegant wine here; an iron bar wrapped in velvet kind of a thing. Small, dark fruit and smoky wood dominate the nose at this early stage revealing more complexity some 24 h after double-decanting. Palate is focused, yet succulent and silky, with concentrated black berries and highly polished tannins (kind of which one would find in the best vintages of the great wines of St Julien and St Estephe). Most of VS ends up in private cellars never to be seen again, so the secondary market does not exist, but, as an investment in your own pleasure in about 8 - 15 years time, this would be very difficult to beat. With 96+ in Wine Advocate, this is exceptional wine and at this price, about as serious bargain as one could think of - especially when compared with recent releases from around the world with same ratings (Sena, Grange etc). We have limited stock, which will be shipped at the end of October.
The Wine Advocate - Luis Gutiérrez - 96+
The 2021 VS follows the same path as the rest of the 2021s, with elegance, perfume and purity, but it has more depth than the regular Mauro and a little more concentration and tannins but with the same terrific balance and harmony that should mean a long and positive development in bottle. It's precise and combines power with elegance like few vintages before (1996, 2001, 2018), and it has integrated oak after 26 months in French oak barrels. 50,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2024. Drink Date: 2025 - 2040
Wishing you all the best from Richmond
Zoran