Max 2014, Bodegas y Vinedos Tinedo, VDT Castilla, Spain

This organic red has a very attractive purple cherry tone, clean, with hues of blue and a good intensity. Expressive and well defined tertiary aromas (tobacco, cinnamon, chocolate), fruity (glace strawberries, dry apricots and plums) and spicy (liquorice). A well balanced palate, with a good concentration, fresh tannins, red fruits (strawberries, cherries) and a tertiary finish (tobacco, liquorice).

Food match: cheese, pasta and rice dishes.

Tinedo is the Alvarez-Arenas’ family estate. It has been dedicated to the production of wine in a traditional way for generations. The estate is made up of 49 hectares of vineyards in the heart of La Mancha. Growers and winemakers since 1742, the existing main house, tool sheds, winery, and gardens were built up in the late 19th century by their great grand mother. Manuel, Esperanza and Amparo Álvarez-Arenas, have lead from 2002 the renovation of the vineyard and the winemaking concepts behind Tinedo's wines, looking for the full expression of the oenological potential of the terroir. Tinedo has reinforced its social and environmental concerns, encouraging the sustainability as a model of agricultural, rural, and social development related to the culture of wine.

Viticulture: the Tinedo estate is ideal for practicing a sustainable viticulture, excluding the use of herbicides and synthetic products. The aim is to get balanced and complex wines through a vineyard which completes its biological cycle. The work in the fields and the winery is shared by people thoroughly involved and fully aware of the importance of a common work from the vineyard to the wine. A rigorous monitoring of the water content of the vineyard, at both a ground and leaf level, guides the field work and enables the completion of the whole maturing process at a slow pace. The farm is divided into 30 sectors which are managed independently based on the type of wine that is to be produced according to the soil and the type of plant.

Winemaking details: part of the wine is fermented in 10,000L cement tanks and part in double lined 20,000L stainless steel tanks. The extraction process is always gentle and manual, using destemmed uncrushed grapes, with low fermentation temperatures and maceration which varies depending on the type of grape. The malolactic fermentation takes place in cement tanks and partly in barrels according to the type of wine. The aim of the aging process is to stabilise the wine and to enhance its natural clarification without filtration. For this, cement tanks and barrels in which the lees “fall” more easily are used. All wines have aged at least one winter, having thus stabilized in a natural way.