Lanzaga 2020 | Telmo Rodríguez | Rioja

He learned the trade at home, and the other way round. His father, Jaime Rodríguez, bought Remelluri in the late 1960s: an old, abandoned property in the Rioja Alavesa where he set about making wine from scratch. Telmo grew up there.

He met Pablo Eguzkiza while studying in Bordeaux, both of them marked by working with houses such as Pétrus, Cos d'Estournel, Domaine de Trévallon and Chave. In 1994 they made their first wine together — an old-vine Garnacha from Navarra — and out of that came Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez.

What they have done since is hunt for forgotten vineyards and near-extinct varieties across Spain. They hold plots in Rioja, Valdeorras, Cebreros, Ribera del Duero, Málaga, Alicante and Toro, and they have brought back projects that had been lost, such as Molino Real in Málaga or Pegaso in Cebreros.

Lanzaga comes from Lanciego, in the Rioja Alavesa: bush vines farmed organically, between 450 and 650 metres, on shallow limestone, stony and silty soils, with tempranillo, graciano and garnacha. It ferments with native yeasts in concrete vats of 6,500 to 8,500 kilos and ages fourteen months between 1,500-2,500 litre foudres and 225-litre French oak barrels.

Gaba do Xil is their Valdeorras project: godello with other varieties on clay soils rich in silica, fermented with indigenous yeasts and given several months on its lees.