Wines to revive your Rioja taste buds

The groundbreaking village model saving a region in crisis

Our wine expert's pick of reimagined Riojas

Aoife Carrigy

It’s not every day that you taste new groundbreaking wines, with a winemaker known as one of the best in his country. Spain is easily one of the most exciting countries in today’s wine world, and Telmo Rodriguez has been a key pioneer for decades. He was in Ireland recently to showcase his newly extended terroir-focused range of Lindes de Remelluri wines from a cluster of villages near Haro in north-west Rioja.

These wines represent the future of Rioja, Rodriguez argues. He believes these sites might prove capable of producing “some of the most amazing wines in Rioja”. More importantly, he believes that this model of village wines represents “an opportunity for the salvation” of a region “in crisis”. It does so by emphasising the growers and their vineyards rather than the work in the cellar and its barrels.