Remelluri Rioja Reserva 2016
(Rioja, Spain) - [WS 93, #40 Top 100 of 2025]

About the Winery:

The estate’s origins date back to the tenth century when Count Erramel, a Basque warrior and aristocrat from Álava, founded a small village on the site (uri in Basque); hence the name Erramel Uri evolved to Remelluri. The first wines were made here in the fourteenth century, when Hieronymite monks tended the monastery atop the nearby Sierra de Toloño mountains and founded a sanctuary and farm on the site. The earliest written evidence of wine production dates from the Laguardia village tax records of 1596, noting Remelluri’s contribution. The monks later abandoned the area, but local hermits continued to maintain the shrine while the Real Divisa, a local community organization, maintained the farms to accommodate the needs of pilgrims who came to pray at the sanctuary. The estate was eventually split up and sold in the nineteenth century, as were many properties belonging to religious orders throughout Spain.

The modern winery was established in 1967 when Jaime Rodríguez Salís, father of siblings Telmo and Amaia Rodríguez, purchased the vineyards at the heart of the former estate and began to make wine from the ancient, abandoned site. Jaime and his wife Amaia were entrepreneurial, non-conformist intellectuals from Irún, where Jaime was a writer and archeologist and Amaia, a writer and artist. The family was always forward-thinking, with incredible respect for culture, creativity, and craftsmanship. Since then, Remelluri has been devoted to restoring the original, historic vineyards to their fullest potential. Remelluri became the first single-vineyard Rioja of the modern era with its release of the 1971 vintage, standing out from a conservative wine culture based on house style and blends of purchased wines from throughout Rioja. Remelluri was founded on individuality and the concepts of terroir and specificity, always distinct from the industrial machine of greater Rioja. 

Telmo Rodríguez (winemaker) and Amaia Rodríguez Hernandorena (viticulturist), returned to the property and took over the project from their father in 2009. Their return to their family winery marked the beginning of a new era at Remelluri—both a renewal of purpose and a commitment to the process of uncovering and revealing the truth of Remelluri. Telmo’s winemaking partner in all of his projects, the prolific Pablo Eguzkiza (trained at Château Petrus), has helped implement numerous changes in the vineyards and winery that can now be seen in recent vintages of Remelluri.

“Recovering regions, protecting traditions, head-pruning vines, helping those who are starting out. That’s what I’m talking about. Everything we’re doing is restoring; we’re not trying to invent anything new. In fact, our motto is: The Future Lies in the Past.”

– Telmo Rodríguez, Winemaker

Terroir:

Remelluri’s vineyards are located along the slopes of the Sierra de Toloño mountains in the valleys of Valderemelluri, La Granja, and Villaescusa, just above the village of Labastida in Rioja Alavesa. The vineyards here are at the highest elevation in the Rioja region with vines planted between 500 and 950 meters, south-facing, and protected from the prevailing northern winds and frost. The estate consists of more than 80 individual plots, all of which are vinified separately. One of the keys to the location’s significance is that the vines are planted in terraced amphitheaters following the contours of the mountainside, which shelters them from the harsh weather on the leeward side. It is worth noting that the Atlantic influence of the Bay of Biscay lies only an hour and a half by car from Remelluri, as evidenced by Telmo’s frequent surfing trips with his filmmaker brother Sanxo to Spain’s top destination for big waves. This ideal location is why generations of inhabitants have sought shelter and farmed the site for centuries.

It is this unique microclimate that gives the wines of Remelluri their distinct personality and character. These are mountain wines that express themselves very differently from the typical Rioja wines of the plains below. The grapes at Remelluri, grown in the foothills of the Toloño mountains, are almost always the last to be harvested in Rioja; it is common for the vintage to last well into October or November. Poor, stony soils, with layers of calcareous clay, give considerable structure for aging. At the same time, the Atlantic influence provides abundant rainfall and much lower temperatures than in the rest of the region, lending incredible acidity and freshness. The fluctuation of cool nights and warm days offers the ideal conditions for proper, long phenolic ripening of the grapes, resulting in Remelluri’s hallmark complex and nuanced aromatics. 

The high-altitude wines from these vineyards have more in common with the great nebbiolo-based mountain wines of Italy than the fruity garnachas of southeastern, Mediterranean-influenced Rioja. They are also naturally built to age gracefully for decades, similarly to their Italian counterparts.

Remelluri is pure mountain Rioja.

Vintage:

Vinification:

Bunches were hand-selected daily vine-by-vine between September 22 until October 25, placed in small boxes and taken directly to the winery. Whole clusters are destemmed and crushed, and the must is spontaneously fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks and old, open-top foudres. It is then aged 21 months in foudres and barrels of various sizes, followed by more than five years of bottle aging in the Remelluri cellar. Made with low intervention and bottled unfiltered May 2018.

Technical Information:

Grapes: 80% Tempranillo, 11% Graciano, 9% Garnacha

Soil: Clay calcareous, limestone, bedrock, stone