Three Brilliant Wines from Rioja on their way.

REMELLURI RETURNS TO IRELAND

Remelluri, the home of Spanish winemaker Telmo Rodriguez, will shortly make a welcome return to these shores. This has always been one of my favourite wines in Rioja, and now seems to be destined for even greater things. When I met Rodriguez back in 2014, he was determined to set things right in his home territory. ‘I am’ he said ‘a little bit old, so I think we have enough projects now. But Rioja is very important to me. My family bought our estate there back in the 1960s and I grew up there. Rioja is my main project today, the one in which I am investing most money and effort. It is like the other places I worked in; I have that excitement all over again. Rioja is one of the most amazing places in the world. The big old well-known wineries are responsible for the destruction of the vineyards of Rioja. We and other small producers are recuperating vineyards, finding old vines, going back to what existed before. Rioja needs to show what is inside.’

Rodriguez was born into a Basque family. His father had bought and restored an old monastery in Rioja and named it Remelurri, where he produced wine. Rodriguez studied winemaking with some of the top producers in France and returned to Rioja full of ideas. His father was quite happy with the way he was making wine, so Rodriguez departed. He had met Basque enologist Pablo Eguzkiza while studying at Bordeaux University. Together they founded Compañia de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez in 1984, and set about restoring the historic grapes and traditional practices of Spain. In each region they hired an old grower who remembered the way things used to be done and a young enologist who knew how to make wine. The two men have probably done more than anyone else to restore Spain to its rightful position as one of the great wine-producing countries of the world.

As for Remelluri, the wines were always good, but have even better since Rodriguez returned. He now produces two wines under the Lindes de Remelluri name. These are single vineyard wines, from estates that Remelluri bought every year. It is part of the plan to focus on the varying soils and terroirs of Rioja. One is from the village of Labastida, the other from San Vicente de la Sonsierra. The first is in Rioja Alava, the second in Rioja Alta. Then there is the Remelluri estate wine from their own vineyards.

The wines are now being imported by Vinostito, and should arrive in mid-September. I suspect they will be stocked by leading independents around Ireland. The two Lindes wines will sell for around €22, the estate for €31. Don’t miss them; these are very exciting wines.

Lindes de Remelluri 2012 Viñedos de San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Rioja
13.5%
€22

Cool elegant black fruits and chalky minerals on the nose; Impeccable linear dark fruits and minerals; precise, young, taut, structured and dry. An excellent wine that needs a few years or decanting before drinking with red meats.

Lindes de Remelluri 2012 Viñedos de Labastida, Rioja
14%
€22

Slightly riper on the nose than the Sonsierra but the same delicious blackcurrants – a wonderful nose; cool clean linear blackcurrants, a little more giving than the Sonsierra, but still a young taut wine. This is a brilliant wine – it doesn’t have the sweet extracted oakiness of a modern Rioja, nor the developed vegetal notes of the traditional style, but this is all the better for it.

Remelluri Rioja Reserva 2010
14%
€31

Wow! Wonderful wine. Broader, showing some soft maturity on the nose and palate; ripe dark fruits with real depth and complexity, yet at the sme time a lovely purity of fruit. This is exceptional Rioja. I have coravined my bottle and cannot wait to try it with roast lamb over the weekend!