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CORKAGE: High Among The Tempranillo, Away From The Gossiping Ladies Of Lociego

(ed. note: Amorita and her husband Scott are currently in France celebrating their honeymoon. Our hearty congratulations on their marriage and best hopes for outstanding times abroad)

by Amorita Bastaja | Day two in Spanish wine country has me up earlier than I’d like to be, but the roads are impossible to navigate here and I missed my appointment with Pablo, the winemaker/ partner at Telmo Rodriguez yesterday. I’ve got to make up for lost time! I’m in Rioja and keen to get into the vineyards. As I’m driving aimlessly around at 8:30am looking for the impossibly small town of Loceigo, small Senoras are out for their morning walk. As I slowly drive by they all stop to stare at me, a clearly very lost tourist.

Finally, I locate the winery and Pablo. I tell him of the very confused ladies, and he leans in to tell me and says, “they need to know all that goes on here. They all know me, but I don’t know them – there will be much gossip later in town that Pablo was speaking English to a strange girl!” I laugh and Pablo takes me into his vineyards.

High above Rioja Alavesa, we wander among 80 year old Tempranillo bush vines. He’s keen to show me the soil types, as this is the key of the vineyards. His plots have a very red soil, flecked with calcium. He comments that his vines are very close together and I tell him that I disagree. Compared to other regions his plants are very far apart. He then takes me to a vineyard he doesn’t own. The vines are trained very high and extremely close together. The soil is also a different colour.

I ask him why this is and he explains that this owner decided the vineyard didn’t have enough soil, so he just bought some and spread it around. He also points out that the Tempranillo is not in its “true state” being trained so high and in neat little rows. He finds it completely ludicrous to bring soil from another region and train the vines in a way they don’t normally grow. “It takes away the essence of the wines, what makes them quintessentially Rioja,” he tells me. “One no longer tastes the region in the bottle”.

We finish our tour in the barrel room where I sample the great value LZ, one of the Rioja’s that Telmo Rodriguez produces (approx $25 in private stores). Chock full of blackberries, minerality and firm tannins, this young wine needs time, but it was still a lovely sign of things to come. I bid a quick goodbye and thank you to Pablo, as I need to keep moving. I’m off to Marques du Riscal in the morning, and then Navarra next…

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Amorita Bastaja is a manager at Legacy Liquor Store, the largest liquor store in British Columbia (located in the Athlete’s Village), and the Wine Editor of Scout. Her love of imbibing steered her through courses from the International Sommelier Guild and the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, and has taken her to many wine regions, including Washington State, Napa and Sonoma, Piemonte, Veneto, Tuscany, Abruzzo, Provence and all over the Okanagan Valley.