Telmo Rodríguez
Telmo Rodríguez
Long-term mates and business partners, Telmo Rodríguez and Pablo Eguzkiza have been kicking wine goals together for nearly 30 years. They started working together in the late 1980s at Telmo's family Rioja estate, Remelluri, and went on to lead changes in conceptions of Spanish wine in the post-Franco era (a time of significant recovery and re-imagining). As well as Remelluri, they have three village Rioja projects. The company name has been Telmo's, but they are equal partners in every respect - starting with intellect and fearless commitment. Trained as winemakers at University of Bordeaux, with formative experience working for some of France's finest, Telmo and Pablo are among the most thoughtful of Spain's post-industrial organic producers, deeply committed to authenticity. Since the early 90s, they have attempted to move beyond the limits of the 30th century practice; increasingly this involves deeply historical revisions. It would be a poor mistake to tag such cultural historians with any label such as 'modern': their practice is much more about history than the advantages of contemporary technology. La Compania started n 1992 withmodest Navarra Garnacha. That same year they bought their first parcel of land (the Falcoeira cru in Valdeooras) and set about exploring Spain with the intention to re-discover, re-interpret and re-invent. Over time, they found parcels to work all over Spain: in Cebreros (a non-DO village west of Madrid in the Sierra de Gredos), DO Valdeooras, Rueda, Malaga, Cigales, Alicante, Ribera del Duero, Toro, and of course, Rioja. Initially, they worked in old vineyards housing the (often endangered) genetic identity of these different regions. Nowadays, they are also doing much new planting, re-asserting the historical match of locally evolved cultivars (often as field blends) to best sites and practices.
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