Winemaker Notes
The Rioja vineyards for Telmo Rodriguez' wines are in the eastern part of the region, in Lanciego. It is here, on the clay and calcerous slopes, that some of the most interesting vineyards of Rioja coexist with hundred year old olive groves. Lanzaga, the middle Telmo wine from Rioja, exhibits the character of the Lanciego vineyard's fruit: a beautiful cohabitation of strength and elegance.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Lanzaga was sourced from a biodynamically farmed Rioja Alavesa vineyard and is also a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, and Graciano aged in oak of various sizes for 14 months. It is a more brooding offering with enough structure to merit an additional 2-3 years of bottle age.
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.