Remelluri - Lindes de Remelluri San Vicente Rioja 2020

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2020 Lindes de Remelluri Viñedos de San Vicente de la Sonsierra is more fruit-driven, primary and perfumed than most of the other bottlings, juicier, with a sensation of higher ripeness (despite having lower alcohol, 13.79%) and slightly dusty tannins. The breakdown here was 88% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha and 2% other varieties. 68,422 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2022.

There is a big change in the range of Lindes, the wines produced with grapes from external local grape growers from the neighboring villages. They have bottled six different wines from 2020, selecting grapes from six different villages. In 2020, they had two episodes of hail and they had to sort, select and discard, and they also bought grapes from different growers, including Marqués de Legarda from Ábalos. It was a learning exercise to understand the character of each of the villages in a journey that continues in 2021 and 2022, trying to enhance the differences between the villages with a simpler enology.

There's also a Grandes Lindes, a very special bottling from a truly exceptional vineyard. It might be a collection that grows in the future if they find more exceptional vineyards. This project has been ongoing since 2011, but they never released any of the wines until today with a wine from San Vicente de la Sonsierra from 2019, but they still have all previous vintages, around 2,000 bottles each year, in their cellar.

As for the classical Remelluri wines, they are changing the concept; the new wines will come from the 2020 harvest, and they have reduced quantities tremendously. They probably did less than 200,000 kilos of grapes in 2020, when they had done 400,000 kilos in the past... So, I only tasted the white from 2020; the Yjar sold at La Place de Bordeaux in September 2023 and the classical reds will come in the future.

Tim Atkin

Guia Peñin