Granja Remelluri Gran Reserva 2016 | Rioja

The lands of Remelluri, on the slopes of the Toloño range above Labastida, were a monastic farm attached to the Toloño sanctuary until the fifteenth century, and the first record of wine on the estate dates from 1596. In the late 1960s they were bought by Jaime Rodríguez Salis, a businessman from Gipuzkoa and amateur archaeologist who drove the excavation of Roman Oiasso in Irun: he replanted the vineyard and rebuilt the buildings. Hence the full name, Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri.

His son Telmo Rodríguez left the winery after a disagreement with his father and founded his own wine company. He came back to run it around 2010, more than a decade later, together with viticulturist Amaia Rodríguez Hernandorena. Since then the Remelluri label is made only from estate fruit and has returned to biodynamic practice in vineyard and cellar; grapes bought from Labastida growers go into Lindes de Remelluri, kept separate by village since 2010.

The vineyard runs from 500 to 950 metres. The Gran Reserva comes from five sites in Labastida and San Vicente de la Sonsierra (Doroño, Villaescusa, San Esteban, Cascajo and Portillo), between 680 and 780 metres, on terraces of poor limestone with clay-calcareous soils: 45% Garnacha, 35% Tempranillo, 15% Graciano and 5% others.

Hand harvest, fermentation with native yeasts in small wooden vats and 25 months' ageing in barrels and foudres of different sizes.