Forget Another, Enjoy Mother Wine Instead

The Spanish word for the widely grown and popular Mediterranean Grenache grape is Garnacha. And mother is Madre. Garnacha de la Madre is the name of a single vineyard located in a cool valley on the Más Que Vinos property in the Tierra Castilla region of central Spain. The small creek that runs through the valley and the vineyard itself is called Madre - almost everything related to water in Spain ties into to the word mother; seeing it is the element that is essential for any living being.

Más Que Vinos was founded in 1998 when three friends - Margarita Madrigal, Alexandra Schmedes and Gonzalo Rodriguez met. Each was a winemaker with extensive experience. Seeing the great potential of the vineyards in Gonzalo’s hometown of Dosbarrios (outside Toledo), they launched their personal winery project rescuing old plots of indigenous grape varieties and moving to all organic viticulture. They renovated the old family winery (from 1851) and in 2007 constructed a new modern winery in nearby Cabañas de Yepes. After fermentation, this wine spent one year maturing in amphorae, concrete, egg-shaped tanks. The result is a wine with an elegant nose with floral notes while the taste and lingering finish are very complex. It’s certified organic too. The Robert Parker tasters rated it with 93+ points. We recommend pairing it with barbequed lamb skewers and then, as an obligatory end to the meal, Spain’s famous Manchego cheese. After all, it hails from the milk of Manchega sheep that graze in the neighboring wild grasslands of La Mancha. A semi-hard cheese, it is identified by its distinctive herringbone rind and sweet flavour. 

2018 Garnacha de la Madre LCBO # 18927, $19.95