Remirez de Ganuza, a top Rioja property, shows that modern can be good

rioja spain

Remirez de Ganuza, a top Rioja property, shows that modern can be good

Regular readers will know that a winery that employs solely 100% new oak (with 20% American), and selects as far as taking the tips off grape bunches (these are less ripe, usually), is probably not going to be my favourite sort of producer. But wine is complicated. You can’t be dogmatic.

grapes
Recently harvested grapes - the small crystals visible on some are sulfur dioxide

Remirez de Ganuza makes excellent wines. I’ve just written up a visit to this star producer in Spain’s Rioja, and I have to say that the wines were superb, even though they were made in a modern, interventionist style. You can read the article here.

Generally, I believe that working more naturally is a good way to make wines that express their terroirs better. But there are exceptions, and if you are dogmatic then you miss these exceptions.

3 Comments on Remirez de Ganuza, a top Rioja property, shows that modern can be goodTagged ,
wine journalist and flavour obsessive

3 thoughts on “Remirez de Ganuza, a top Rioja property, shows that modern can be good

  1. Hi Jamie – there’s not much in your write-up that tars this winery with an “interventionalist” brush that I can see. I don’t think that making different wines from different parts of the same bunch is “unnatural”. It is just attention to detail done on a scale that most people can’t afford. And the waterbag press sounds non interventionalist too, more like gravity at work than anything else. Also (presumably hand) harvesting in small baskets sounds like a good idea, if you can afford it. So where’s the problem? Is it the 100% new oak policy? – yet you say yourself the wines are “superb”, and many people associate Rioja with vanilla flavours…

    Either way, good for your for admitting to liking something more than you thought you would.

  2. Maybe I missed it….. but is there any ethos around the fruit…i.e. Organic or Bio.

    The waterbag technique also sounds like their embracing technology which in my opinion is an effort to improve quality or character. I feel that the more care and attention some pays is a reflection of their passion for their product. As a result, whether they are natural, Bio or Reirez de Ganuza there wines will have character….. it then just depends on whether it is your cup of tea.

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