Remelluri, Lindes de Remelluri Vinedos de Labastida 2014

The Lindes de Remelluri wines are an homage to the growers that have long worked for the estate and brought their grapes into Remelluri. Lindes means borders and they are made from vineyards in the surrounding villages of San Vicente de la Sonsierra and Labastida. These grapes, which used to be blended into Remelluri's main wine, are now allowed to shine in site-specific bottlings. Grapes for this wine are sourced from the vineyards of Labastida. Although vinification is the same, compared to San Vicente Labastida is at a higher elevation, further from the Ebro River. The resulting wine is lower in alcohol with great acidity and flavour concentration.

Remelluri was founded by monks in the 14th Century, although there is evidence dating even farther back of wine being made on these premises. The vines changed hands a number of times over the years before being purchased by Jaime Rodriguez in 1967. In 2010, Jaime's son and daughter, Telmo and Amaia Rodriguez, took the reins of the estate and set about making a series of changes to showcase the potential and diversity of Remelluri's different terroirs, and ultimately reclaim Rioja's viticultural history. The first major change was to cut down the production of Remelluri wines by one third, restricting it to wines produced from the estate's own grapes. The two wines made from grapes grown in the surrounding villages are now sold under the label Las Lindes de Remelluri, and are identified each by their village of origin: Labastida and San Vicente de la Sonsierra. As a nod to Rioja's historic viticultural traditions, they have begun moving the Garnacha from trellis to bush-grown vines and will be working increasingly with mixed field plantings. Although Remelluri has always eschewed chemical treatments in the vineyard, 2010 marked the year of the estate's full organic certification. Work in the winery plays a secondary role in Telmo's philosophy, but great care is taken to make sure that each bottle reflects the terroir of the region: wines are fermented with native yeasts, each plot is vinified separately, new oak is used very scarcely and the wines are very lightly filtered and fined.