Remelluri, Rioja Reserva, 2021

Remelluri was founded by monks in the 14th Century, although there is evidence dating even farther back of wine being made on these premises. The vines changed hands a number of times over the years before being purchased by Jaime Rodriguez in 1967. In 2010, Jaime’s son and daughter, Telmo and Amaia Rodríguez, took the reins of the estate and set about making a series of changes to showcase the potential and diversity of Remellur’s different terroirs, and ultimately reclaim Rioja’s viticultural history. The first major change was to cut down the production of Remelluri wines by one third, restricting it to wines produced from the estate’s own grapes. As a nod to Rioja’s historic viticultural traditions, they have begun moving the Garnacha from trellis to bush-grown vines and will be working increasingly with mixed field plantings. Although Remelluri has always eschewed chemical treatments in the vineyard, 2010 marked the year of the estate’s full organic certification. Work in the winery plays a secondary role in Telmo’s philosophy, but great care is taken to make sure that each bottle reflects the terruño of the region: wines are fermented with native yeasts, each plot is vinified separately, new oak is used very scarcely and the wines are very lightly filtered and fined. This is a very exciting time for Remelluri and hopefully a new direction for Rioja