Bodegas Lanzaga Rioja ‘Lanzaga’ (750ml)

Thelmo Rodriguez is one of Spain’s top elite winemakers.  He is originally from Rioja and he spent many years exploring Spain’s wine appellations.  He was drawn to regions and sites that lay practically abandoned as he saw the potential in these plots to become some of the best vineyards in the world.  He partnered with his friend Pablo Eguzkiza in the early 1990’s and created Compania de Vinos Telmo Rodrigue.  They have identified and restored vineyard sites in nine different wine regions across the country.  They trained as winemakers at University of Bordeaux and also worked in French vineyards.   In 1998, while working at Telmo’s family winery Remelluri in Rioja Alavesa, they started to buy old vineyard sites around the town of Lanciego.  Telmo is a vocal advocate for the potential of Spanish wine and highlighting terroir. “Our wines are not made by winemakers, they’re made by grape growers…. Once you understand your place, you know how to work.”   Today, Telmo and Pablo are some of the most innovative and respected organic wine producers in Spain today.