Remelluri La Granja Rioja Gran Reserva 1999
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Robert
Parker
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The monumental 1999 Remelluri La Granja Gran Reserva is a testament to what can be achieved in Rioja. Made up of a blend of 86% Tempranillo, 12% Garnacha, and 2% Graciano, it was fermented with native yeasts and aged for 27 months in French and American oak. Beautifully expressive aromatically, it gives up exotic spices, lavender, incense, a hint of balsamic, black cherry, and blackberry. In the glass it deftly combines elegance and power while concealing enough structure to endure for at least another 10-15 years.
Blend: 86% Tempranillo, 12% Grenache, 2% Graciano
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The monumental 1999 Remelluri La Granja Gran Reserva is a testament to what can be achieved in Rioja. Made up of a blend of 86% Tempranillo, 12% Garnacha, and 2% Graciano, it was fermented with native yeasts and aged for 27 months in French and American oak. Beautifully expressive aromatically, it gives up exotic spices, lavender, incense, a hint of balsamic, black cherry, and blackberry. In the glass it deftly combines elegance and power while concealing enough structure to endure for at least another 10-15 years. At the asking price, it is a steal in world class wine.
Remelluri is one of the most timeless and iconic landscapes of the wine world, as well as one of the most enchanting vineyards in Spain. While firmly anchored in its historical past, Remelluri illuminates the path forward for not only the future of Rioja but also world-class, terroir-based fine wines produced in Spain. It is about rediscovering the essence of Rioja, and the story’s evolution is genuinely cinematic in scope. At Remelluri, the future lies in the past.
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. The modern winery was established in 1967 when Jaime Rodríguez Salís purchased the vineyards at the heart of the former estate and began to make wine from the ancient, abandoned site. 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.
Remelluri’s vineyards are located along the slopes of the Sierra de Toloño mountains, 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. This ideal location is why generations of inhabitants have sought shelter and farmed the site for centuries.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.