Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez

Telmo Rodríguez grew up at Remelluri, his family's Rioja Alavesa estate, where his father Jaime Rodríguez had purchased the ancient property in 1967 and begun making wine from the abandoned site. Telmo worked at Remelluri through the early 1990s before deciding in 1994 to launch Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez with his long-time partner Pablo Eguzkiza. The new project would work outside the established appellation infrastructure, building wine identity around specific vineyards rather than around appellation-level marketing, and would extend beyond Rioja into Spain's most historic but commercially overlooked regions where rural depopulation and post-war agricultural rationalization had left old vineyards abandoned or producing unremarkable bulk wine. Telmo eventually returned to lead Remelluri alongside his sister Amaia in 2009 after their father Jaime stepped back, but Compañía de Vinos has remained his separate project with Pablo and the more consequential one for his broader influence on Spanish wine.

• Telmo Rodríguez grew up at Remelluri, his family's Rioja Alavesa estate purchased by his father Jaime in 1967
• 1994: Founded Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez with long-time partner Pablo Eguzkiza
• Project premise: recover and bottle wine from great old vineyards across Spain's commercially overlooked regions
• 2009: Telmo and his sister Amaia returned to lead Remelluri after their father Jaime stepped back; Compañía de Vinos with Pablo Eguzkiza remains his separate project

The Compañía's work has spanned an unusually wide geographic footprint across three decades. Major projects have run in Rioja, Toro, Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Valdeorras, Cebreros in the Sierra de Gredos, Málaga, Cigales, Alicante, and Galicia, with each location chosen for its concentration of old vineyards on distinctive terroir. The Bodega Lanzaga project in Rioja Alavesa, with a dedicated winery built in 2007 in Lanciego, became the first purpose-built bodega in the broader portfolio. Telmo started buying old vineyards around Lanciego in 1998 while still working at his family winery, accumulating parcels for the eventual independent project. The flagship Rioja site, Las Beatas, sits in Labastida in the most northwestern part of Rioja Alavesa, where continental Miocene conglomerates are mixed with sandstone and outcrops of Tertiary marl. The vineyard covers 1.9 hectares across ten levels of terraces facing east, south, and northwest, with eight to nine local varieties planted, predominantly Tempranillo with Garnacha and small parts of Viura and other rare cultivars. Telmo and Pablo spent fifteen years restoring Las Beatas after acquiring the abandoned site in 1998, releasing the first wine in 2011 (approximately 500 bottles from the small old-vine harvest and roughly ten percent of young plantings).

• Project work has spanned Rioja, Toro, Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Valdeorras, Cebreros, Málaga, Cigales, Alicante, and Galicia
• Bodega Lanzaga (Lanciego, Rioja Alavesa): first purpose-built winery, completed 2007; vineyard acquisitions began 1998
• Las Beatas: 1.9 hectares in Labastida on Miocene conglomerates with sandstone and Tertiary marl; ten levels of terraces facing east, south, and northwest; eight to nine local varieties
• First Las Beatas vintage bottled 2011 after fifteen years of restoration; approximately 500 bottles in the debut vintage from old vines and a small share of young plantings

Telmo Rodríguez has been the most prominent voice for having Rioja's greatest terroirs recognized through the appellation's slowly evolving vineyard-classification framework, and for returning to small-scale, traditional winemaking practices that more clearly express individual vineyard character rather than appellation-level house style. The Compañía's work has built that case through specific bottlings: village-level wines, single-vineyard wines, and the rare Las Beatas-style projects that demonstrate what is possible when an old vineyard is restored and bottled on its own. Cellar work emphasizes traditional foudre and large oak aging rather than barrique-driven extraction, with indigenous-yeast fermentations and minimal intervention. The aesthetic has influenced a generation of Spanish producers who have followed similar patient-vineyard, traditional-cellar paths.

• Most prominent voice for Rioja terroir recognition and vineyard-classification reform
• Cellar emphasis on traditional foudre and large oak aging rather than barrique-driven extraction
• Indigenous-yeast fermentations and minimal cellar intervention across the entire range
• Has influenced a generation of Spanish producers who have followed similar patient-vineyard, traditional-cellar paths

The Compañía's bottlings range from accessible appellation-level wines to the rarest single-vineyard releases, providing the broadest possible cross-section of Spanish terroir from a single producer. The Rioja project at Bodega Lanzaga includes the LZ village-level Lanciego wine, the structured Lanzaga single-village bottling, and the flagship Altos de Lanzaga from selected old-vine Tempranillo parcels on limestone slopes and sandstone plateaus at 450 to 650 metres. Las Beatas in Labastida is the rare single-vineyard apex. In Toro, the Gago bottlings (including Dehesa Gago and the structured Gago) are made from old-vine Tempranillo. The Matallana project in Ribera del Duero draws from eleven vineyards across five villages around La Horra, Sotillo de la Ribera, Roa, Fuentecén, Fuentemolinos, and Pardilla. Pegaso in Cebreros (Sierra de Gredos, Castilla y León) is made from old-vine Garnacha on granite soils at 800 to 1,000 metres. The Molino Real project in Málaga, established in 1995, revived the region's historic Mountain Wine tradition with both sweet Moscatel (MR, Molino Real) and the dry Mountain Blanco. Basa is the Rueda Verdejo-led white, and the Galicia work in Valdeorras includes the Ladeiras do Xil and Bibei bottlings.

• Rioja: LZ (Lanciego village), Lanzaga (single-village), Altos de Lanzaga (flagship), Las Beatas (single-vineyard), Tabuérniga (Labastida)
• Toro: Dehesa Gago (entry), Gago (structured) from old-vine Tempranillo
• Ribera del Duero: Matallana from eleven vineyards across five villages including La Horra and Roa
• Sierra de Gredos: Pegaso Granito (Cebreros, Garnacha on granite, 800 to 1,000 metres). Málaga: MR and Molino Real (sweet Moscatel) plus Mountain Blanco (dry). Rueda: Basa (Verdejo-led). Galicia: Ladeiras do Xil and Bibei bottlings

Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez is the most influential single Spanish wine project of the past three decades, with reach extending well beyond the wines themselves into the broader conversation about how Spain's great old vineyards should be understood and made. Telmo's advocacy for vineyard-classification recognition in Rioja, the patience that produced Las Beatas after fifteen years of restoration work, and the demonstration across multiple Spanish regions that old vineyards on distinctive terroir can produce internationally serious wine have collectively reshaped how Spanish wine is discussed today. The Compañía's bottlings range from accessible appellation-level wines to the rarest single-vineyard releases, providing the broadest possible cross-section of Spanish terroir from a single producer.

• Most influential single Spanish wine project of the past three decades
• Telmo Rodríguez has been the most prominent advocate for vineyard-classification recognition in Rioja
• Las Beatas (fifteen years of restoration) demonstrates the patience-and-vineyard model for old-vine recovery
• Bottlings range from accessible appellation-level to rarest single-vineyard releases across ten Spanish regions