Luis Gutiérrez I 2021 - 2028
The 2018 Gago was produced with Tinta de Toro (Tempranillo) from the villages of Argujillo, Villabuena del Puente and Morales de Toro in an atypical vintage in the zone, with lots of rain and a cool summer that delivered a generous crop of late-picked grapes between October 4th and 10th. It fermented in oak and stainless steel vats and matured for 14 months in oak foudres and 20% of the volume in barriques. The wines are always ripe here, and the challenge is to keep the freshness and achieve elegance. The wine is juicy, round and full-bodied, with abundant, slightly grainy tannins.
I tasted the fine-wine portfolio from Telmo Rodríguez and Pablo Eguzkiza, wines from different regions with a great majority of 2018s, a vintage that was challenging in many places but with very good results. Their viticulture is organic (and has been for a while) and is biodynamic in some places; they are in the process of certifying some of their wines, but they are finding some bureaucratic problems. In Rioja, all of their wines are certified organic. In Galicia (Valdeorras or Riberas del Bibei, as they want to call it), they have their new winery in an old building that they restored, and they have a new wine, probably called Lg. Valbuxan (Lugar de Valbuxan, a place from O Bolo), a red that closes the gap between Gaba do Xil and the single vineyard wines. Falcoeira and O Diviso are in the process of being certified organic. Most of the wines from Gredos, which now carry the DO Cebreros and mention Sierra de Gredos on their labels, were from the 2018 vintage, one of the finest in the zone. The wines showed super elegant and with unnoticeable oak—defined, clean and precise—and they showcase the consolidated new style since the arrival of winemaker Marc Isart.
There's currently only one red from Ribera del Duero from Telmo Rodríguez, as the project there is a work in progress. They also make wine in Toro and Rueda, which I tasted with the rest of their fine wine portfolio and should be published shortly, but the wines from the Duero are included here for completeness and context.