I never get tired of spending a couple hours watching the heavyweights in the world of wine play "swinging dicks" against the most iconic traditionalists of European wine. Thus I don't often go to long between viewings of documentary film "Mondovino". From Michel Rolland, to the family Mondavi down through the fantastically stubborn Hubert De Montille, the characters are endlessly fascinating and the clever tactical ploy of telling a story with no narration whatsoever allows for a playful plausible deniability that the filmmakers are in fact taking sides on the issues before the lens. The enduring and subtle genius of the film however, lies in its tapping of the most fundamental divide in the world of wine. The battle between process and place as the most important aspect of winemaking.
It is a constant and ever present debate. It bleeds into every wine list, every critical publication, and virtually any discussion you can have with wine producers. As recently as Wine Spectator's Top 100 of 2013 issue, James Laube highlighted The Cube Project, a (somewhat) scientific approach to demonstrating which aspect "winemaker" or "terroir" plays a greater role in the end product. Laube clearly feels that the winemakers hand is the most important factor and his distinctly California-centric approach to wine is obvious, but like most of us in the trade, he is careful not to take definitive sides on the argument. I have long felt myself on the other side of that equation, recognizing that a great wine REQUIRES a great wine maker, but even a great winemaker has his hands tied by the source fruit. One has to look only as far as Niagara to see the impact the Beamsville Bench plays in elevating the wines from those vineyards from their neighbors. Yet I'm far from dismissive on the role of the process. Hell, my favourite Canadian winemaker, Andrzej Lipinski has made a career on his innovative process centric methods like appassimento and cigar barrels. Such fence sitters the lot of us wine folk.
Telmo Rodriguez is having none of that respectful nonsense. He fashions himself the renegade, the warrior, bent on putting place above process in the hearts and minds of Spanish Wine. Having had the opportunity to taste twice with the man in March, first here in Toronto, and then at Prowein in Dusseldorf, I can see that he comes by his campaign honestly.
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| Telmo Rodriguez, Toronto, Canada |
For many decades after the advent of modern winemaking techniques began to sweep throughout the old world, large corporate wine producers in Rioja, shaped the landscape in their favour. Utilizing the regional regulatory systems, they built focus around brands, mass produced and easily recognizable. Masking the lack of character and distinction were terms like Reserva and Gran Reserva, which suggest elevation in quality, but in fact, are merely descriptors applied to wines that undergo a specific process. Spend enough time in a barrel, and you have a Gran Reserva, regardless of the actual quality in the bottle. So prolific were these large corporate houses, that they controlled nearly all the production in Rioja, and certainly all that was going for export. Instead of tasting the wide range of what Rioja wines COULD be, the world was only tasting the symmetrical and familiar wines of these well placed brands.
"It would be like turning on the radio, and only hearing The Spice Girls", says Telmo, quite astutely, of the landscape he returned to from his winemaking explorations in France.
Driven by the dynamic, terroir driven wines he experienced there, where the highest calibre wines were not determined by process, but rather their source vineyards, Telmo began his journey to transforming his homeland. His family estate, Remelluri, with winemaking roots that span over a millennium, still retain the regional categorical designations on some of their range. The Lindes de Remelluri line however, follow in Telmo's passion for village and vineyard designate wines. But through his growing little empire of terroirism, Telmo Rodriguez Compania De Vinos, he is meticulously waging war on the old guard of nondescript Spanish Wine. What began with Rioja has spread throughout Spain, as Telmo champions local varieties, old bush vines and select vineyards to showcase the wide array of juicy gifts available from all corners of Spain.
Whether it be the whimsical Godello or the sea swept Mencia of the As Caborcas Valldeorras, the mountain wines of Malaga, the elegant dusty Tempranillo of Rioja or the brooding blends of the Ribera Del Duero, tasting through his wines is all you need to grasp the impact that place has on every bottle. Both region by region, and also by following the chain in each from the least to the most focused geographical designations. James Laube can cite all the Cube Projects he would like, but a tasting such as this says everything one needs to know about the integral force "place" has on wine. As I finish through these tastings I can't help but recognize that even the few wines that I didn't really appreciate on their own, still played their part in the greater mosaic of what Telmo is trying to achieve.
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| Tasting with Telmo, Prowein, Dusseldorf, Germany |
Having been blessed with the opportunity to taste side by side with him twice in succession, I was left in awe of the man's passion for his craft, which is most certainly contagious. That Spanish charm, does the experience no foul either. The impeccable dress, the longish hair that comes off as though the wind itself has placed each strand in its perfect place, the wit, the commitment and the insightfulness to shape the conversation in tandem with exactly what he wants you to experience within the glass. While the follicle counterpoint to Hunter S. Thompson, he embodies that devil may care spirit behind America's high king of counterculture.
I may sit on my fence between the wine world's greatest divide. But so long as I have a bottle of 2011 As Caborcas from the Spanish seaside, I'll be just fine.
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| 2011 As Caborcas, Valdeorras, Spain |
