DOCa Rioja DOCa (Denominacion de Origen Calificada ) is a higher level DO presently bestowed upon La Rioja and el Priorat. Rioja occupies relatively high ground in the north of Castile, and crosses into the lower Basque country. It s bound by mountains on three sides: Sierra Obarenes to the west, Sierra Cantabria in the north, with Sierra de la Demanda the southern boundary. In the east Rioja yields to the high plains of DO Navarra. The DO is divided into three sub-regions. The high country (up to 650m) of Rioja is split into Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa, which nestle under the Sierra Cantabria, in an arc running east from Haro towards Logrono. Away to the south-east, down towards Alfaro, is Rioja Baja Mediterranean-influenced, red soiled, lower and warmer. Note: the high country appellations, Alta+Alavesa, are political rather than geographical or ampelographical distinctions: Alta is Castilian, Alavesa is Basque. Thus, at its simplest, there is a division between high and low country Rioja. Such simple distinctions are not definitive: for example, Palacios Remondo in Baja is a special site at 600m altitude - higher than all but a handful of Alta/Alavesa vineyards, most of which range from 300-550m ASL. And while limestone versus clay is sometimes presented as the simple soil distinction between Alta and Baja, that beautiful red clay dirt is very much a feature of the high country, along with the freshness of Alta s limestone and sandstone. Moreover, climate is a regional and annual variable, well beyond the simplicity of hot, moderate or cool years. Depending where (and when) you are, you might be influenced by the Mediterranean which reaches up from DOQ Priorat along the Rio Ebro, usually into Baja but sometimes beyond. You might face Continental climatic elements, such as a high diurnal temperature range; or Atlantic influences - cool, damp days and shortened daytime ripening hours. Most likely, a combination: clay and limestone, Continental, Atlantic and Mediterranean influences in an annualised mix underscored by location. Tempranillo dominates Alta/Alavesa, but Garnacha and blending options such as Graciano and Mazuelo (aka Carineña or Samsó) also feature. The latter two can help add acid and structure to the softer tendencies of Tempranillo in warmer years. While Baja is dominated by Garnacha, it too has Tempranillo. There s also white from Viura (aka Macabeo) and Malvasia. Riojan whites are currently going through a period of revision. Viura and Malvasia are relatively bland grapes which have historically been handled warm and oxidatively in lots of older oak. This has in part been a stylistic choice attempting to add character by winemaking and handling, but also a reflection of Spain s historical technological poverty. Nowadays, temperature control, stainless steel, new oak and various other international influences see experiments with lighter, fresher Riojan whites. Above we mentioned the current revision in Riojan white styles, and this applies even more to the reds which dominate the DO (about 85% of production and the vast majority of exports). As Telmo Rodriguez likes to say, there are many Riojas to discover and interpret, should one be prepared to work at a local, village and vineyard, level. Rioja as a definitive is most likely the Rioja of big commerce: the modernist era through the Fascist years and into the 90s saw Rioja reduced to large industrial companies and/or co-ops buying up volume-based, early-picked fruit from all over Rioja and applying a handling-heavy regime in the Bodega. Starting in the 90s, there has been a revision of Rioja through the likes of Telmo Rodriguez, Artadi and others, foremost among whom is Bodegas Roda. Let s not make the mistake of calling this the new Rioja, however, for this misnomer bundles together internationalist, Parkery heavyartefact wines (Benjamin Romeo, Finca Allende and others) with the post-modernists: neo-historians who delve beneath the façade of industrial Rioja to to re-discover the diversities of cultivar, site, slope and soil and reveal a variety of Riojas. Compania Vinos de Telmo Rodriguez The Lanciego Wines 'LZ' Tempranillo A jam-packed cranberry+field herb nose (red lavender anyone?) is perfectly struck fresh fruit and earth, lift and depth... The palate is perfumed, ovoid, lissom, and really harmonious - built beautifully on Telmo and Pablo s trademark natural fruit tanninnatural acid twin-track. Un-oaked, juicy and deft, it s not just good and typical Rioja, nor merely delicious this is spectacular wine for the $$. Spain s Greatest Pizza Wine!
Bodegas Roda, DOCa Rioja, haro Ro-Da is the contraction of the surnames of the two owners, Mario Rottlant and Carmen Daurella. (Note that their wonderful extra virgin olive oil, Dauro, uses their surnames starting letters in reverse.) Since 1987, they have sought to establish a unique expression of Rioja, based on 17 different vineyards of old vines in poor soils (a mixture of sandstone and clay/limestone) all with long histories in quality Rioja wine growing. Roda s main vineyards are in the Estacion district near Haro. For the first years, no wines meeting their intentions were achieved, but Roda has successfully released wines since 1992, starting with Roda 1 and Roda (aka Roda 2, 1992-2001), which have been produced each year since, save 1993 when only Roda 2 was produced. In 1998, these were joined by the deluxe Cirsion and since 2008, a young vines wine, Sela. Roda wines are essentially vinos de viñas viejas (old vines wines), from vineyards 2/3 owned, and all entirely managed by Roda. In Roda s case, old vines are determined as 35 years or more, though most are 50+. The greater depth of roots and the larger volume of soil encompassed by old vines reduces the influence of drought or excess rain, balances yield and stabilises character. Old vines set smaller, more concentrated berries with much lower juice-skin ratios and more faithfully reflect the mineral nuances of soil through mature natural tannins and acid. Of late, Roda have introduced a new wine, Sela, which is not an old vines release. When the Roda project was set up, extensive vineyard plantings were undertaken. For many years, this material planted by Roda was sold off on the bulk grape market. Nowadays, these 20yo+ plantings, while not old vines, are mature and characterful enough to warrant a release, Sela. All wines are from dry grown bush vines with three branches pruned en vaso. The vase-pruning form ventilates the plant and gives an excellent balance of light and shade for the fruit. Most of Roda s plantings are Tempranillo, but depending on the year and the wine in question, some blending with Garnacha and or Graciano is undertaken. Mazuelo was used in earlier years. Roda s viticulture is organic, with vineyard (design-and-management) plus biological controls taking care of pests. Yields average around 30 hl/ha. Each vineyard is hand-picked several times over by Roda s own picking team. To underscore their viticultural commitment, at 550m altitude near Cubillas they maintain the Enit research vineyard of some 582 distinct cultivars of Riojan vines! This vineyard-museum was planted in 2000 after 3 years fulltime work by a team of viticultors identifying all possible distinct cultivars of Riojan wine grapes. Roda are obsessed with the close study of ripening, particularly phenolic ripeness, and over time this has evolved a truly unique house feel for textural tannins not to mention a singular wine, Cirsion, entirely devoted to silky tannin expression. Their concern is to make plush, violet-velvet wines with rich fruit and full, soft tannins pushing to the margins of the fruit, but always contained within. The wines of Roda are destined for the table, and explicitly stand against the stream of (for want of a better word) Parkery fruit and artefact bombs. As GM of Roda, Agustin Santolaya remarks, such wines are only good for making an impression at tastings their strength of flavour prevents enjoying more than one glass. Agustin claims instead that Roda s wines find that magic balance between volume and airiness, voluptuousness and freshness; wines for enjoying from the moment they appear on the market but which live through many decades. For Bodegas Roda, everything is about the production and retention of grape quality: the approach to wine through viticulture is nowhere given more commitment, managed in the vineyard by Isidro Palacios and in the bodega by oenologist Carlos Diez. The winery is built into a mountain, and is a gravity-fed free run operation (you take a freight elevator to travel down through the hill from one stage of making to another). All frut is hand de-stemmed and cooled before a spontaneous (indigenous yeast) fermentation is in Seguin Moreau foudre - 17 large clean vats, one per vineyard. Fermentation takes 7-8 days, then there is a short maceration. Natural cold settling takes place in vat after malolactic. Each parcel ages separately until tasting for red/black spectrum and division into Roda/Roda 1 barrels. After spring there is a single assemblage racking - the young wine is gravity decanted down one level to age in French barrels, with a minimum of oxidative handling. Over time, the period spent in oak (for Roda and Roda 1) has come down from 18-20 months in earlier years, to 14-15 nowadays, and barrels are 40% new and the balance 1yo. The barrel ageing hall is climate-controlled, with a north-facing glass wall which opens to allow cold winter air in after malolactic fermentation is complete, stabilising the wine naturally. Once mature in barrel, the wines are decanted by gravity to bottle unfiltered, fined by nature.
THE WINES OF BODEGAS RODA Roda Reserva (formerly known as Roda 2) Roda, compared to Roda 1, is based on a selection of Tempranillo which exhibits some red fruits and earth in the mix with the stricter, more structured blue-note Tempranillo which becomes Roda 1. Roda is a wine of great depth, tannin texture and class but in a relatively fruity and approachable register. This tendency towards open-hearted red fruit and earth is augmented with judicious blending, depending on the year, of some Garnacha and/or Graciano. Roda is grown from vines between 35-100 years age, all dry grown en vaso. Hand picked, hand everything, it is fermented in open foudre, gravity decanted to age 15 months in new+1yo French barrique, then gravity-decanted again for bottling (unfiltered, unfined) and cellar ageing before release. The garnacha component of Roda s wines comes from separate vineyards in Rioja Baja, at Tuldelilla and Alcanadre. RODA Reserva 2010 Cruisy, essential, long and effortless in the way of 2010s, this is a wine of perfectly natural, integral structure, carrying red-black lozenge fruits that are succulent and springy-soft with a nice crunch at the rim. All is gathered from the get-go: juice, steeliness, leafy relief and springy tannin look as if somehow they were made tight and then just loosened off a half-turn so all is both directional yet tranquil. There are lovely lingering traces of fennel, softly spiced, just a touch of pepper and vanilla. Roda 1 Reserva 100% Tempranillo. As Agustin says, It is a wine with more structure, with deeper sensations of black fruits, greater wealth of minerals and more complexity. It is a wine for quietness and meditation with a style marked by black cherry and chocolate. Roda 1 is handled identically to Roda (as described above) but in a blue-black flavour spectrum, with heightened minerality, and fine but determined structure resulting from great tannin maturity. These differences (from Roda) are simply, tellingly, the product of fruit selection, not wine-making. It s a wine of power with enormous finesse. RODA 1 Reserva 2009 Rounded and mature tannins, the hallmark of 2009, drive the show here. Blue Note? Blueberry, leather, cola, graphite, kelp, soy, angelica, mace - literally lashings of blue fruit+mineral perfume. Any tendency to fruit sweetness is tempered by florals and spice. Nice mineral studding stops the wine being overly smooth and rounded. Licorice runs through jubey fruit along with a big slab of ferrous minerality. Swishy and very fine, with extra-good oak integration. This is a generous, stylish, very delicious Roda 1, and utterly composed - juice, spice, earth, oak, acid all run together. Roda 'Cirsion' 100% Tempranillo. First released in 1998, Cirsion is Roda's in-vineyard tannin selection project. Cirsion (latin for the thistle, which is Roda's logo) is based on a theory of tannin development in perfect old vine Tempranillo. Under exceptional conditions (not mere hyper-ripening), Roda are able to identify very small parcels which naturally exhibit 'long-chain' (ie 'wine-like') tannins in berry, rather than the more usual model of softening shorter brittle tannins with barrel and bottle maturation. This should not connote a soft-fruity-round wine, however. Cirsion is a very serious, concentrated, complex, powerful beast but this power, extract and expression is amazingly harnessed by the full, unbelievably supple tannin structure. A 'grand cru' anywhere in the world. RODA Cirsion 2010 Arrowroot succotash bark anisey medicinal herbs, elsuperbalsmicio! Red cherry, violet, great tannins, nutty, spicy-soft controlled richness. Yumme!
Compania Vinicola del Norte de Espana, aka Cune, haro The 4 Bodegas of Eusebio Asua C.V.N.E (hereafter, Cune, pronounced Coo-nay) was founded in 1879 by the Real de Asua brothers (Raimondo and Eusebio) of Bilbao. The company is still run by a descendant of the Real de Asua brothers. CVNE have three wineries based in distinct locations (one of which is a double bodega). As well as Cune in Haro, there are Contino and Viña Real from near Logrono to the east. Contino is a single-site project from a warm south-facing vineyard. While Contino is an expression of place, the Cune and Viña Real wines are somewhat more expressions of 20 th century Riojan process racking and oak influence, all that stuff. However, there is a placeness which separates Cune and Viña Real, and one which is quite traditional in Rioja. The Haro-environs wines of Cune are sold in Claret bottles, while the Logroño-area fruit for Viña Real is in Burgundy bottles. Logroño in the east is a slightly warmer, more open part of the valley, nearer to and more influenced by the Mediterranean, whereas Haro in the west is more influenced by the Atlantic chill coming in over the Sierra Cantabria, and here the valley is tighter, hillier. Haro wines tend to be lighter, less tannic and more linear, ie very roughly Claret in style, whereas Logroño wines are fuller, rounder, earthier and more tannic, a little like a relaxed version of Barbaresco or such. Many producers have historically released wines both in Claret and Burgundy bottlings, expressing Rioja in two valid (westy or easty) structural styles. Get me to the Estacion on time The business was established in Haro, near Barrio de la Estacion. The train station at Haro was a direct link to Bordeaux in France, stricken at the time by phylloxera and oidium, and many of Rioja s most famous names gathered in the train station suburb on Haro s north-western corner. From here, the new wave of Bordeaux-style Rioja producers which sprang up in the second half of the 19th century (many of which were owned and/or managed by displaced French) could easily ship Rioja wine to cover the vacant markets for Claret. Thus, Cune first made an income as a negociant house supplying bulk wine to France. A similar short term boom occurred in other parts of Spain, such as Mallorca, whose plantings increased four-fold in the second half of the 19th century, before the collapse when phylloxera eventually devastated most of Spain s vineyards too. By the time this happened, however, Cune had matured into a genuine wine producer in its own right. The brothers soon moved away from bulk wine shipping and began purchasing and planting vineyards around Rioja Alta and employed cellar masters from Bordeaux. The colloquial brand name, Cune is the result of a slight mistake in their first order of packaging: the direction to stamp wooden wine cases as 1886 C.V.N.E were simply mis-read by the package company, and by a happy typo slip, the homonym Cune was born. Cune Imperial Gran Reserva Not made each year, IGR is harvested from Cune s best patch of goblet-pruned dry-grown bush-vines in Villalba and Haro. 24 days maceration and 30 months ageing in US and French oak. Cune Imperial Gran Reserva 2009 Blackcurrant, cassis and wild cherry fruits meet violet, peony, leather and old ink. Imagine taking two sheets of fine parchment with dried inkblots on them, and between them pressing and drying peonies now, slowly rehydrate them with your mind, follow the ethereal dance, the subtle wafting of ink, earth, paper and flower sweetness becomes spice, oak becomes space utterly fabulous.
La Granja Nuestra Senora de Remelluri, D.O.Ca Rioja The first estate of la Rioja Owned by the family of Telmo Rodriguez, and since 2009 run by Telmo and his sister Amaya, this was the first genuine estate owned, grown, made and bottled on a single property - of Rioja. Purely organic, never subjected to herbicide, in conversion to full biodynamics. Remelluri A Granja is Spanish for farm usually one given to animal production. In this case, La Granja Nuestra Senora de Remelluri (Remelluri for short) is a very special single estate nestled under the Sierra Cantabria mountain range above 600m altitude, looking down over la Sonsierra to Rio Ebro and flatter country south. Remelluri is just outside Labastida, a tiny village about 15 minutes drive east of Haro on the way to San Vicente. In the centre of the property stands a giant green oak, which marks the political convergence of Basque Alavesa and Spanish Alta. Remelluri became the first chateau-style estate to grow, make and bottle from and on a single estate. The first vintage under Jaime s ownership was 1971. Since then, renovation of the vineyards and a degree of modernisation of approach (compared to traditional Rioja) has seen Remelluri become a very famous reference in Rioja. Remelluri really came to prominence in the late 1980s when Telmo took over winemaking. Under the guidance of the young Telmo (adopting Burgundian rather than Bordelaise techniques and aspirations), Remelluri moved to the forefront of quality Rioja properties in the late 1980s/early 90s. Telmo actually started working with his long-term business partner, Pablo Eguzkiza at Remelluri. Telmo and Pablo left Remelluri in the mid-1990s to concentrate on the emerging Compania de Vinos Telmo Rodriguez. 15 years later, he s back! Telmo and his sister Amaya have recently taken over the property entirely, running it on behalf of the family from 2009 onwards. Several key changes are in the pipeline. There were some innovations and corrections that Telmo was not allowed to implement first time around. Now, an exacting viticultural quality regime is in place, including upgrading the un-irrigated fruit to be entirely organic and biodynamic, with revisions on planting locations and subtle handling adjustments. As well as deep work on the estate s viticultural quality, Telmo has also culled some non-estate grower fruit that had crept in and watered down the estate concept. True to Telmo s cultural-historicist-custodian bent, he has not merely cut contracts to the external growers he has created a new label under which he will continue to guarantee their incomes. Lindes (boundaries) de Remelluri is a new brand with two wines representing the growers in the small villages either side of Remelluri Estate, 'Viñedos de Labastida will be purchased and made as a village wine representing growers on the western boundary of Remelluri, and 'Viñedos de San Vicente a growers village wine from the eastern margin of the estate. Remelluri Gran Reserva Tempranillo 86%, Grenache 12%, Graciano 2%, 27 months in oak. A relatively fresh (read fruitful) Gran Reserva, with no dead wine characteristics. Gentle and harmonious (rather than merely dry and oxidised, as such styles often are), mild, long and fine. Smells like a hall cupboard full of old coats, one of which has some licorice and tobacco in its pockets. Leading with ripe fruit dark cherry, blackberry, ripe plum, it gains complexity through pepper and clove spices, cedar, orange peel, forest mulch. It s very well balanced, finishing with complex spicy acidity. 2009: similar characters to the Reserva, with a broader, deeper and slightly more broody cast, but also a squeak of sweet-sour signalling a harmonious line developing in bottle.
Compania Vinos de Telmo Rodriguez Telmo and Pablo s Riojas Telmo and Pablo are involved in three sub-regionally distinct Rioja projects. Of these, Remelluri - mentioned above and formerly his father s property - is now in Telmo s hands. Together, Telmo and Pablo have two extremely site-specific projects in Rioja. Las Beatas, from an ancient site just out of Haro, is yet to release its first wines - stay tuned for news, and read below for the full story. The Rioja output currently under Telmo s name is the LZ, Lanzaga, Altos Lanzaga trilogy, which come from the north-eastern village of Lanciego, 20 minutes north of Logrono. Telmo is very fond of saying he doesn t believe in Rioja, rather that there are many Riojas a panoply of sub-regional and site-specific Riojas to choose from and interpret. This is a million miles from the view taken by the CRDO, however. The Consejo Regulador of the Denominacion de Origen is better conceived of as the Conejo Regulador the official bunny of the big companies. The regulatory body of Rioja, obedient to its commercial masters (the giant commercial houses), steadfastly promotes Brand Rioja and the lake of poorly grown, over-made Rioja that comes from everywhere and nowhere. Lanciego Lanciego (Lantziego in Basque) is a tiny village in Rioja Alavesa, in the rolling foothills leading up to the limits of wine growing in the Cantabrias. Telmo and Pablo s holdings are a select patch-work of vineyards purchased on various soils on the hill adjacent to Lanciego. The wines produced here, LZ, Lanzaga and Altos Lanzaga are a three-way telling of the wine story of this specific place. Lanzaga, the brand name, is an invention of Telmo s it points to Lanciego without actually naming it on the label, which is as close as the law allows Telmo and Pablo to say, this wine is from here Here at Lanciego where Telmo and Pablo have chosen their Rioja, is very cold and remote, just at the limits of grape-ripening viability. The soils here are varied, featuring elements such as silty-sand, pebbles, ferrous clays, sandstone and limestone. A typical profile is a shallow ferrous clay textured with pebbles and sand over a first bedrock of sandstone, then a deeper silty-chalky clay over a second bedrock of limestone. The vineyards, too, are mixed. Most are ancient field blends, planted to variant tempranillos, garnacha in significant proportion and support acts graciano, mazuelo, viura, and moscatel. Taken together they have a natural light and shade - inherent complexity - and are a million miles from industrial monoculture and the stultifying contemporary closure around high and even ripening regimes. There is no dull regularity here. Altos de Lanzaga Tempranillo Altos de Lanzaga is a hand-made, biodynamic blend of Telmo and Pablo s best old patches in the upper parts of the Lanciego hillside. Aged in new French barrique, it is nurtured in a centuries old cave in the village of Oullari, a few kilometres from Haro. This little cellar was restored by hand by Telmo a few years ago. TELMO RODRIGUEZ 'Altos de Lanzaga' Tempranillo 2011, DOCa Rioja Cherry cola and cherry tree wood with field herb and birch-brushy undergrowth on the nose, all of which repeat on the palate. It s long and very, very fine. Perfectly grained, tooled without tightness, sweet ripe seeds and skins have yielded a mature and sweet tannin-acid frame of great class. Beautifully integrated, it s a dark, glorious Rioja with lovely sour elements dominating anything rich, or big. A perfect amalgam of berry, briar, tart fruit acid, touches of chocolate and blueberry, creamy oak and an alcohol touch, all melded in a glorious and gliding complex unit, with counterpoint at every sticking place.
Las Beatas Just north of the little road from Haro to Labastida, near the village of Briñas, Las Beatas is a spectacular 2.7 hectare property into which Telmo and Pablo are investing tremendous time and energy. It s in the municipality of Villalba, 5km from Haro, nestled under the Montes Obarenes section of the Sierra Cantabria. Telmo and Pablo see Las Beatas as a memory of Rioja from long ago, before the industrial Riojas of the 20 th century, typified by Tondonia, which lies on the flats beneath this hilly vineyard. Here they will attempt a single vineyard grand cru, an emotional place of great significance. According to the conejo regulador this is an illegal, experimental vineyard. It s the history of Rioja. Las Beatas is on sandy soils high up below the mountains, facing west and south towards the Rio Ebro. It is a winding series of 8 terrace levels, planted to 7 grape varieties densely planted and worked entirely by hand. Unusually for Rioja Alta, it s planted to about 30% garnacha. Here, Telmo and Pablo are seeking to reproduce from a memory, a museum of what was the real Rioja before the advent of Rioja Reservas, where the process is more important than the origin. Here they will reinstate the antidote to the ease and fertility, the dilution of character in modern industrial plantings lower down by the river, such as Tondonia. Las Beatas largely features young vines planted since the purchase of the property in 1998, but with 0.8 hectares of remnant old vines, which are used to provide the genetic material for replanting. To date it has not released a wine. In 2011 a small harvest of the old gear and about 10% of the young plantings yielded 500 bottles and in 2012, 1200 litres were produced from the old patch and about 20% of the young vines. 2012 Las Beatas Made, and to be aged in a single 1200 litre old French foudre, it contains the 0.8 hectares of old field blend Las Beatas (Tempranillo, Garnacha, other reds and some white), and 20% of the young vineyards which have been replanted to Las Beatas genetic mix and in 2012 gave their first or second yield. Violet, fennel, cherry blossom and fresh clay soil. It is very floral, very much of the soil, lovely and very delicate. Open, purple and electric. There s cranberry in the violet, angelica, mountain air, and lots of space in a palate which is fine and clear featuring very lovely delicate tannins. (tasted in Oullari, June 2013, still carrying post-malo carbonic). TELMO RODRIGUEZ 'Las Beatas' Tempranillo 2012, DOCa Rioja 1.9 hectares, 1500 bottles and an amazing history in one vineyard. This is a field blend of genuinely ancient cultivars, but you can call it Tempranillo if you must. One day, this will be known as the Glory of Rioja. After thousands of years and just two vintage releases, I think it one of the great wines. Violet, fennel, cherry blossom and fresh clay soil. It is floral, very much of the soil, lovely and supremely delicate. Open, purple and electric. There s cranberry in the violet, angelica, mountain air, and lots of space in a palate which is fine and clear featuring very lovely delicate tannins. The winery at Oullari In 2000, Telmo and Pablo bought a cool, dark 17 th century bodega in Oullari, a tiny village 7km south of Haro. It s a tiny twin-chamber affair which holds maybe 30 barrels. Backed into a little mountain, it is sparklingly fresh and clean-smelling (albeit carpeted with black mould) and ages wines underground at a constant 12 degrees. Here, Telmo and Pablo have attempted to re-understand how Rioja was made pre-phylloxera, pre-chemicals, pre-machines. The original Rioja yeast strains live on here and are employed to make wines by hand gravity-fed, using 3 large old foudres and taking 12 months to go through malo. Oullari has been home to Altos Lanzaga until now. As Las Beatas grows and takes over Oullari (just minutes from las Beatas), it s most likely that Altos will come to be matured where it grows in Lanciego.
CONTINO Owned by Cune, Contino is a single-estate bodega of 150 acres based in a 200 year old farmhouse in Laserna, between Logroño and Laguardia. The name comes from the royal guard of 100 soldiers who guarded the monarch, and the label features the bust of San Gregorio, the patron saint and protector of vineyards. Created in 1974 by C.V.N.E and Jose Madrazo Real de Asua (father of Contino s current winemaker, Jesus Madrazo), the family owner of the estate. Jesus, an engineer as well as enologist, took over in 1994 and is constantly revising the growing and making of the 7 distinct plots on the estate, each of which is vinified as a separate wine prior to selection and blending the house range. Genetic material for planting comes from massale selection. Contino was set up to be a counter to the Rioja trend of buying/blending to build brands (including of course, by Cune themselves!), with crisp acidy fruit from the cold soils in the North blended with more colourful ripe and alcoholic fruit from Southern Rioja. Prior to the establishment of Contino, the vineyards regularly provided the fruit for the legendary Gran Reservas of Viña Real. Primarily planted with Tempranillo (85%), Madrazo is a champion of the Graciano grape which comprises the bulk of the remaining plantings along with some Garnacha, Mazuelo and Viura. The estate sits tucked inside one of the bends of the Ebro River (which sometimes floods in winter and spills into the vineyards). There are alluvial stone and sand plots which drain freely and the underlying heavy clay and marl soils take care of water retention during the hot summers. All fruit is dry grown. The south-facing pebbly and very warm site is particularly well suited to ripening Graciano, ordinarily tending to greenness and very high acidity. CONTINO Garnacha From 70 years-old vines planted by the river as well as typically contributing 2% of the Reserva wine s fruit and 15% of the Gran Reserva of Contino, Jesus has cautiously begun attempting a varietal wine. Aged in second year 500 litre barrels previously used for Contino Blanco, it spends two years un-racked in wood. Although a varietal, this wine has the shape and feel of Rioja first and utterly, with Garnacha as flavour fill. Contino Garnacha 2012 Red peppers, sour herbs and some nice meat and spice on the nose. The silky primal red berry fruit is nicely opened with oxidative handling. Both nose and palate have terrific harmony - fruit and tannin are earthy and together, oak gives support without marking the palate. Long as well as round, seamless, delicious, well structured and complex Garnacha. CONTINO Reserva Hand-picked and de-stemmed, fermented in 12,000 litre stainless at 30 degrees, macerated 15-20 days. Aged 2 years in old oak, 60% French, 5 rackings. 85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, 5% mixed Mazuela and Garnacha. CONTINO Reserva 2009 Deep and complex, the wine is a very high quality amalgam of oak, earth, fruit - the savoury, the meaty and the mystic. The red fruit confiture over hung meat and fine oak is subsidiary to a fabulous sense of wineness, it s all sweet and leathery with old wood aromatics, pimiento, allspice, black pepper. The palate glides from glyceric cherry through leather to sourberry. It s deep, smooth and meaty with subtle leather, sweet cedar, vanilla and wood spice depth brightened by pip-squeaky fruit and acid levity. Long and profound.
Palacios Remondo, D.O.Ca Rioja (Rioja Baja) ALFARO Alfaro is in the far south-eastern corner of la Rioja, and is the largest production village in Rioja, with 3750 hectares of vines, Laguardia is second. Here, on the southern shores of Rio Ebro, the soils tend to be fertile alluvium too productive for growing quality grapes. Some of the world s finest vegetables come from the rich red soils around Alfaro piquillo peppers, artichokes, asparagus and much more. However, the fruit from which Palacios Remondo wines are made is no run-of-the-mill product of rich dirt, though. Their holdings are 15 kilometres west of Alfaro, high up in the pale clay hills under Mount Yerga. Above 550m altitude, this is one of the highest parts of the entire Rioja appellation, cold and very lateripening. Yerga is in the Sierra Yllera, part of the Sistema Iberico which divides this last vestige of Rioja from Soria, the wild eastern-most part of Ribera del Duero. The soil is a coarse chalky quarternary clay riddled with pebbles - quite big rocks of various mineral origins (metamorphic volcanic lava, limestone, quartz and basalt). In the rain-shadow of the mountain, rainfall is a very low 360mm (compared to 550 in Haro). PALACIOS REMONDO NOW While growing up in Alfaro, Alvaro witnessed the dumbing down of Rioja after the Civil War, where Tempranillo became all that was validated, and Rioja itself became a simple, price-oriented brand. Alvaro allows that the bad decision-making of the 80s and 90s was the result of a lack of confidence, and calls the focus on varietal Tempranillo an invasion, particularly on the soils below the river, where 80% of 23,000 hectares of Rioja Baja is planted to irrigated Tempranillo, producing, as he terms it, artificial wine. In 15 years under Alvaro s guidance, the vineyards and wines of Palacios Remondo have undergone extraordinary change. Once a conventional Rioja producer based on industrially-farmed Tempranillo and the Crianza-Reserva-etctera model of industrial production, nowadays the vineyards of Palacios Remondo are organic and bio-dynamically grown low-crop plantings of Garnacha, with a scattering of white Viura. Any Tempranillo in the Palacios Remondo wines is purchased from good growers near Haro on the north shore of the Ebro. Avoiding industrial clones from the nurseries, all plantings are massale cuttings of these hills ancient genetic selections, planted on Rupestres de lot rootstocks. While all ancient and recent plantings are en vaso (goblet-pruned bush vines), the 20-some year old plantings of la Montesa itself are grown on trellises. Alvaro plans to spend the next 10 years re-grafting this main vineyard to bush vines. This would not seem necessary to most, given the outstanding quality already reached. It is simply the best thing to do, though, according to Alvaro, and therefore mandated. PALACIOS REMONDO Propiedad Viñas Tradicionales Garnacha de Alfaro 95% Garnacha with a touch of Monastrell and field blend Viura, this is a blend of five old vineyards at 600+ metres altitude under Mt Yerga. Las Mulgas is the oldest of these, at 90 years old. This is the limit for Garnacha any higher than this and you get unripe, thin-skinned Garnachas. Fermented in Tinas, aged in 650 litre French oak and bottled unfiltered, the 2010 Propiedad represents the culmination of a decade s intense labour by Alvaro in returning the Alfaro vineyards to their natural viticultural direction. PALACIOS REMONDO Propiedad 2011 Viñas Tradicionales Garnacha de Alfaro An axis-shifter, as Alvaro terms it, this 2011 is deep and energetic and without any fanfare, gently rips the cover off the idea of Rioja Baja. Fleshy, vegetal, and softly earthy with lantana herb-florals, wild rose and hawthorn above the heartwood smells of the old vines. There s orange and grapefruit peel and a saline streak. With wonderful volume, it s open, with nice textural maturity a lovely gently juicy wine in the direct and transparent way of the 2011s. Full of light and air, vibrant with soft fresh acidity.