Bodega Lanzaga - "LZ" Rioja 2021

Bodega Lanzaga is a project of Telmo Rodriguez (best known for his family's Rioja estate, Remelluri, which he brought to fame in the early 1990's) and his partner, Pablo Ejuzkiza. Known as Compania de Vinos, Telmo and Pablo's collaboration aims to identify and restore ancient, indigenous varieties in top vineyards in places like Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Toro, Rueda, Cigales, Valdeorras, Cebreros, Alicante and Málaga. In 1999, they purchased a 17th century Bodega in Oullari, a small village south of Haro in Rioja, and set about trying to understand how Rioja was made before phylloxera, chemicals and machines. Lanzaga now consists of 19 hectares of organically farmed vineyards, and Telmo hopes to recreate the vineyards of 150 years ago, where as many as 50 varietals would be co-planted and made into a true field-blend.

LZ (pronounced el-zed) Rioja is a tribute to the village grape growers of the 1920s. Telmo and Pablo love to imagine how they made wine back then; fermenting it with no cultivated yeasts in big, raw cement tanks, pressing it, racking once, then keeping the wine in the same concrete tanks for nine months until the next harvest. A field blend of certified biodynamic young and old vine Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and other cultivars from estate fruit vineyards around the village of Lanciego, planted to cool clay and calcareous soils at between 450 and 700 meters in elevation. This is a wine that truly punches above its category; featuring spiced cranberry and floral notes on the nose, a round, full palate with excellent tannin/acid balance. The palate is medium in body, lissome, fruity, earthy and remarkably deep. The purity of fruit is exceptional.