The ‘Terroir’ man of Spanish wines

The ‘Terroir’ man of Spanish wines

By Sip Sherwin LaoTelmo Rodriguez: The “Terroir” man of Spanish wines looks like a movie star, he loves to surf, he is very outspoken, he speaks fluent English and French aside from his local Spanish and Basque tongue, and is considered rebellious by the higher wine authorities in Spain for his dissenting views on select Denominacion Origen (DO) laws, but despite all these, there is no denying that he is a well-respected winemaker that only makes good quality wines.
Rodriguez started very young (in the early ’80s), helping out in their family’s bodega at Remelluri in the La Rioja region. After gaining several years of experience working hands-on in the family vineyards, Telmo made the winery’s first single vineyard wine (or called vinos de pago in Spain)—where grapes are sourced from just one specific vineyard. This was a radical move, because it is not only costly, but at that time, the trend in Rioja was blending and mixing grapes from different vineyards to mass produce. Remelluri wines would eventually transform into one of the more important wine brands in Rioja and across Spain from the late ’80s onwards.
Despite early success in making good wines in Rioja for Remelluri, he opted to re-educate himself in wines by going to Bordeaux to work there and learn from best French vignerons. The smaller regional denominations and micro-climates of a more clear-cut French Appellation Origen Controlee (or AOC—equivalent to the Spanish DO) system were extremely appealing to him. Terroir, which has no exact equivalent in English, is a French term that means weather, soil, altitude, and the micro-climates —all rolled into one, that influence vineyards from a specific demarcated area. This search for true terroir will eventually manifest itself in his own wines from different Spanish regions years later.
By 1994, Rodriguez would team up with friend and fellow winemaker Pablo Eguzkiza to create their own wine company called Compañía de Vinos de Telmo Rodríguez. After just over a decade, he has already become a constant headliner in Spanish wine news. His name is often cited together with the likes of Alvaro Palacios and Peter Sisseck (of the Pingus fame) as amongst the new breed of Spanish wine visionaries that created the renaissance of premium Spanish wines. His wines now carry seven DO regions, from the popular Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Toro, Rueda, Valdeorras, Cigales, to Malaga. Ninety percent of all production goes to export. He is now truly an international name to reckon with in the world of wine.
I was very fortunate to have gotten an interview with Rodriguez during my trip to attend the Madrid Fusion Gastronomy Summit earlier this year.
What was the reason you left your family bodega, Remelluri to start your own winery?
I was looking for new challenges, and my experience not only in working with French wineries, but also traveling around wine regions, have made me believe that I can contribute more to Spanish wines. Our goal with Compañía de Vinos de Telmo Rodríguez is to look for vineyards out there that had once produced good wines in their hay days, but were now hardly known. We want to be the one to re-vindicate these properties and bring old fashion good terroir wines back into being.
What is therefore your philosophy on winemaking?
Our philosophy is always to find the real terroir of a region. Wines have to get its character from the vineyards. We want to go deep into the heritage, the legacy, the old-fashion wines that made the specific region unique, from the right vineyard location, the soil structure, the climate, the altitude, and the whole package. Sometimes these locations are undiscovered, and I search hard for it. Before I started my Rioja project, I had to visit the area over 40 times before finding the right vineyard location. Same applies to my Valdeorras DO property, where I searched and found very good Godella grapes for my Gaba brand wine.
Being a firm believer in Spanish grapes, do you see yourself doing Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot grapes (French varietals) in the near future?
No, while I love French wines and have been greatly influenced by their wines, I still believe in the local Spanish grapes. I respect tradition and want to get the best from my own country. I’m not even looking at the Penedes DO region now.
Why don’t you label your wines Crianza, Reserva, or Gran Reserva, when in fact your wines follow the required DO requirements on oak aging classification? Is that the rebel in you?
I do not believe that these titles guarantee anything, except for the oak-aging period. It doesn’t guarantee quality, and oak aging doesn’t guarantee that a wine will be good. It’s purely marketing, and I do not believe in that. My wines come in different quality levels, and use different oak-aging periods. These wines are given different names—and priced in different tiers. That is my quality tier, not with Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva terms that every DO uses indiscriminately. For my Rioja for example, I use LZ for a regular tier, the Lanzaga for my Crianza-equivalent tier, and Altos Lanzaga for my Reserva-equivalent tier. I am against the DO Regulatory Council’s way of promoting these oak aging classification.
Whats next for for you?
I want to expand into more Spanish DOs. At present, I have seven, but I am scouting around for more. As in our philosophy, we only want vineyards with unique wines to offer that are true to its terroir. This is how I see expansion, rather than over-producing my wines just to meet demands, and therefore lose the quality edge. Also, I want to improve my logistics, and we are in the process of building a brand new central warehouse to carry inventories of all our different wines from different regions. At present, our wines have to come from different cellar points, and that is very costly and inefficient for our customers. And finally, I want to further expand my wines exposure internationally. We are in most of Europe, the United States, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines, but I’m looking at Singapore, Korea, and others too. I want to sell more to the international market where I can be a good representation of quality Spanish wines.
With this strong philosophy backed by incredible wines, Telmo Rodriguez will certainly be a regular fixture in the wine world. So whether he is a rebel or not amongst his colleagues in the local wine industry, he remains a pride for Spanish wines in general as his wines get to be enjoyed all over the world!
Author’s note: DOs, or short for Denominacion de Origen, are demarcated wine-growing regions in Spain that are under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, and independently managed by a Regulatory Council that is composed of representatives from member-bodegas (or winery). The Regulatory Council passes and implements the laws governing wine-making practices of the DO, including the allowed varietals, the oak-aging laws, the yield per hectare, among others. The DO also polices its own ranks to ensure that quality standards are upheld by all member-bodegas.

Origin: Manila Standard Today