Barolo had Renato Ratti and Beppe Colla.
The Rhône Valley had Jacques Reynaud.
Burgundy, the Cistercians.
Rioja? It has Telmo Rodriguez.
Unlike other iconic wine-producing regions, Rioja has never had cru vineyard designation. According to the Consejo Regulador, Rioja should be about brand names and classifying wines based on length of aging, rather than any consideration of origin. But Telmo Rodriguez is changing that: his mission is to highlight Rioja's greatest terroirs through small-scale, traditional winemaking to best express their unique character (or as he puts it, "making the best Rioja wine of the 18th century"). And who better to shine that spotlight than Telmo, who quite literally grew up at the ancient Remelluri estate within the borders of the Rioja Alavesa region.
Ancient is no exaggeration here; the estate's origins date back to the tenth century when Count Erramel, a Basque warrior and aristocrat from Álava, founded a small village on the site. Through monks, local hermits, and pilgrims, wine production continued through the end of the 19th century. By the time Telmo's father Jaime purchased the estate in 1967, it was abandoned and in need of rehabilitation, a monumental task that Jaime faced head on, one that Telmo would continue when he returned from University and winemaking stints in Bordeaux and Burgundy. As Telmo set out the rehabilitate old vineyards across Spain and craft terroir-driven wines, his focus never strayed far from his origins: the unique, high-elevation vineyards of the Rioja Alavesa that reach into Spain's Basque country, where it had until recently been illegal to label wines with a village or vineyard.
As he began to identify vineyards to feature in his village wines, one stood out among the rest: San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Perched on a hill overlooking the Ebro Valley, the site is surrounded by the ancient ruins of the San Vicente castle, a 10th century fortress of the Kingdom of Navarre, and home to old-vine Tempranillo up to 90 years in age. There's a dramatic elevation swing from one end of the vineyards to the other along the Toloño mountain range (500m in the valley ascending to 1000m at its peak, the highest elevation in the region), and the poor, calcareous soils there produce wines of great complexity and longevity. With ancestral farming techniques, organic, biodynamic, and regenerative vineyard practices, Telmo launched his first vintage of Lindes San Vincente in 2010.
Ancient is no exaggeration here; the estate's origins date back to the tenth century when Count Erramel, a Basque warrior and aristocrat from Álava, founded a small village on the site. Through monks, local hermits, and pilgrims, wine production continued through the end of the 19th century. By the time Telmo's father Jaime purchased the estate in 1967, it was abandoned and in need of rehabilitation, a monumental task that Jaime faced head on, one that Telmo would continue when he returned from University and winemaking stints in Bordeaux and Burgundy. As Telmo set out the rehabilitate old vineyards across Spain and craft terroir-driven wines, his focus never strayed far from his origins: the unique, high-elevation vineyards of the Rioja Alavesa that reach into Spain's Basque country, where it had until recently been illegal to label wines with a village or vineyard.
As he began to identify vineyards to feature in his village wines, one stood out among the rest: San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Perched on a hill overlooking the Ebro Valley, the site is surrounded by the ancient ruins of the San Vicente castle, a 10th century fortress of the Kingdom of Navarre, and home to old-vine Tempranillo up to 90 years in age. There's a dramatic elevation swing from one end of the vineyards to the other along the Toloño mountain range (500m in the valley ascending to 1000m at its peak, the highest elevation in the region), and the poor, calcareous soils there produce wines of great complexity and longevity. With ancestral farming techniques, organic, biodynamic, and regenerative vineyard practices, Telmo launched his first vintage of Lindes San Vincente in 2010.
San Vicente de la Sonsierra sits just behind the San Vicente castle
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We recently had the opportunity to check back in on this inaugural 2010 vintage and were delighted to find that it had developed as beautifully in bottle as we've come to expect from Telmo's wines: still energetic and lively, broad and silky in texture even after over a decade in bottle, with cocoa and five spice dusted cherries, sweet tobacco, dried rose petal, and toasted fennel beautifully composed on the palate. We were so delighted, in fact, that we bought the last few cases of the vintage in the state.
Normally, this wine retails for $65 per bottle. Now, we're offering the 2010 Lindes San Vincente for only $58 per bottle. Want more? Get the 3-pack for only $53 per bottle, or a half-case for $48 per bottle! And for those of you participating in our annual truffle offer (see below), these bottles count as truffle wines (and represent exactly the international cooperation we like to see).
