2011 Remelluri, Rioja Blanco, Labastida de Alava, Spain.
Since Telmo Rodriguez’s return to his family estate Remelluri, a new direction and drive have found their way into the wines, the latest set of Remelluri are some of the winery’s best to date, especially this amazing 2011 Blanco, it looks set to be a classic, and maybe one of the finest whites in Spain. Telmo always plays coy with his processes from winemaking to varietals, he stresses it is about place and history rather than type of grape or techniques, in our last two meetings now he neither confirms nor denies my guesses as to how and what goes in and on, but regardless this is a fantastic wine, it certainly possesses qualities that lead to comparisons to Meursault, Hermitage and Chateauneuf-du-Pape and wines from Roulot, Coche, Chapoutier, Chave and Beaucastel, and if you wanted to reference California maybe even the likes of Aubert, Peter Michael and Kongsgaard. The Remelluri Blanco 2011 is full and generous, but with refinement and purity, it starts with white flowers, citrus and wet stones leading to a deep palate of sublime texture with apple, peach, honeysuckle, clarified cream, clove, fig, a steely note and lemon curd. There are flashes of tangerine, chalk, butterscotch and apricot along with savory and saline elects, plus a bit of stone fruit pit and a lift of acidity to keep this rich wine in check. This wine is absolutely world class in every detail, I know it has a mix of about 9 varietals including Chardonnay, Roussanne and a few Spanish grapes and was fermented using natural yeasts, some of the wine used cement, some big cask and some stainless, it is a Remelluri original field blend, in fact Telmo tells me that it will be the model he will use on the estate red, going forward he will increase the number of red grapes in the vineyards, he believes it will allow a better canvas to create the best picture of place, I certainly will enjoy watching as the full image emerges, as for now, the Blanco is a masterpiece, near perfection, drink from 2014-2020.
($84 Est.) 97 Points, grapelive
