Incredibly, somehow, it became illegal to mention the location of the vineyard on a Rioja wine label. No name of a village or site allowed. Imagine the same thing in Burgundy; no Puligny-Montrachet or Gevrey-Chambertin. The only designation allowed referenced the amount of time a wine spent in barrel, any fruit or characteristic of place very often battered into submission by excess oak 🙄
We were delighted to meet Pablo, the next generation of the Rodriguez family, earlier this week, to learn more about his and his father’s mission to challenge the industrialisation of the Rioja region and of course to taste some of the results.
When Pablo’s father Telmo took over control of Bodegas Remelluri, an ancient vineyard tucked under the Sierra Cantabria, from his father he stopped using grapes purchased from growers in neighbouring villages in the estate wine. But convinced of the quality of the wine he could make from those grapes, and that each village had its own character, he determined to carry on the connection and created the Lindes de Remelluri range of wines.
Paying way over the market rate for grapes, to ensure quality and to enable the growers to carry on working old, established but lower yielding vineyards, Telmo has fought to build recognition of the special qualities of different sites within the Rioja region while the biggest names carry on paying the minimum for grapes and produce blends from whatever grapes they can get from wherever they find them. Then batter them into submission with a lot of wine-making to engineer wines that conform to a certain style.
I’ve been doing this wine thing long enough to have visited Remelluri in the days of Rodriguez senior, and took the vineyard and cellar photos above on one of those visits. I was bowled away then but I am truly excited to see what the next two generations of the family are doing to bring new life to an iconic estate and to a region that deserves better than the industrial grade blends that are so dominant. We tasted multiple wines with Pablo and it was a delight to see an expression of place in each one. Arriving at I&R soon!
