Old Vine Spanish Wine in Toro

Raul, Vintae Winemaker, showing grapes from old vines.

Toro, Spain. As soon as we arrived inMadridwe drove to Toro to check out the vinyards around the Matsu winery. The first vines we saw were old vines that escaped the Phylloxera epidemic that destroyed most of the vineyards in Europe in the late 1800s. The vines were not terraced but in bunches. These are grapes and vineyards that produce theMatsutrio of wines, El Viejo, El Recio, and El Picaro. Raul, the head winemaker at Vintae, told us that these old vines were more than 100 years old. He had us taste the grapes from the old vines and the grapes from newer terraced vines. There was a noticeable difference in the grapes. The old vine grapes tasted mellower, while the new vine grapes were bright.

Next we went into the winery. The most interesting part of the wine making process for these Toro wines, was how they are aged in oak. Raul told us that he ages the wines in three different types of oak barrels. The wine ages in French oak, Eastern European oak, and American oak. We tried what is to be the El Viejo wine from the three different oak barrels. They all tasted similar, however my preference was for the wine from the Eastern European oak. Ultimately they will all get mixed together. The wine from all the different oak barrels gets mixed repeatedly during the oak aging process. All the wine from the barrels is mixed together when the barrels are cleaned several times and finely when the wine is finished and mixed before bottling. The Matsu wines are some of my favorite Spanish wines because of the oak barrel aging and the idea that they come from old vines.