Reinventing Spanish wine

(IrishTimes) - Telmo Rodriguez revolutionised Spanish wine by using his country’s old, forgotten grape varieties and making the stunning wines we have come to love.

Telmo Rodriguez has played as large a part as anyone in all of the good things that have happened to Spanish wine over the past two decades. I remember meeting him 10 years or so ago and naively asking if he added any cabernet sauvignon to his Ribera del Duero. He bristled slightly, and gently replied that the local grape, tinto del pais, a clone of tempranillo, was all he needed to produce his wine. Other producers might follow fashion by adding cabernet or merlot, but he had no interest in joining them.

Long before Spain became the hot property it is today, Rodriguez travelled around Spain seeking out old grape varieties that had fallen out of fashion in areas that few considered worthy of attention. It is hard to realise now just how revolutionary that was at the time. Regions such as Ribera del Duero had announced themselves on the international stage, but Toro, Cigales, Alicante, Rueda and Malaga were unknown. He did not ignore the better-known regions either, making some excellent wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. “My biggest advantage was that I did not have any money. It is like restoring a house – when you don’t have much to spend, you don’t make many mistakes. I travelled very slowly, very quietly buying grapes, renting some vineyards. I just wanted to work in vineyards that were beautiful, vineyards you could smell. I was just following our ancestors. The real jewels that our country has are these beautiful vineyards with a great history that are still as yet undiscovered.”

Possibly unique amongst winemakers is his ability to make both interesting good everyday wines and expensive limited production wines that wow the critics.