Spanish civility.
Serious wine drinking is serious business. Sometimes, a wine demands so much attention it can detract from company, food and the general good time of wine. Not necessarily a bad thing, if this is your wheel house, but after a few weeks of serious drinking, we decided to share a bottle that would require less attention.
Our default wine for these type of nights is Italian Chianti, the food is usually pasta or charcuterie.
We have been wading through a lot of Italian varietals recently so we decided to cross the border to Spain. Rioja can be serious, but it can also be very easy, enjoyable drinking.
The Rioja we drank tonight had a foot in both camps. It was fun, easy drinking and a perfect match to dinner. Yet there was enough in the glass to make it an interesting wine.
The Telmo Rodríguez portfolio is comprehensive. No less than six estates across all of Spain, the Bodega Lanzaga is the home of his Rioja vineyards. The vineyards sit in the Álava sub region of Basque and the wine making team has several high quality vineyards to draw fruit. The Lanzaga is the flagship wine, receives the best fruit and more new oak. It is a big wine, in a modern Rioja style. The Corrinete is the entry level point wine. Good quality every day drinking and excellent value for money.
Between the Lanzaga and the Corrinete is the LZ. This is a nod to the traditional ‘village style’ wine that has existed in the region for centuries. The wine sees less oak, less winemaker intervention an expression of vineyard and climate as opposed to winemaker skill. For this reason the LZ expresses itself differently from vintage to vintage. In less than ideal vintages, it is lean and savoury, in good vintages a fruit driven wine that can equal the Langaza.
For me, there is no preferred style, I enjoy the wines as an expression of the vineyard and vintage. 2017 was a difficult vintage in Rioja, and this LZ carries that lean fruit profile you would expect.
Decanted for 60 minutes.
Tempranillo
Graciano
Granacha
Deep garnet with a slight clearing rim. The nose is dominated by the Tempranillo, sour cherries, black olives and fresh green herbs. There is a vanilla sweetness in the background, it is well integrated, could be from the fruit or the wine may have seen some new oak. On the palate the wine has medium acid and medium body. Sour cherries dominate the palate. The wine is not entirely textured, somewhat thin, perhaps the wine has not seen new oak. It has decent length.
A wine from a difficult vintage and it shows. While I enjoyed this wine, I can imagine some would find it linear and lacking power.
Drink now – 2025.
88 pts.
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