Bodega Lanzaga ‘LZ” Rioja Joven 2020

The Rioja vineyards for Telmo Rodriguez’ wines are in the cool Lanciego zone within Rioja Alavesa. It is here, on the clay and calcerous slopes, that some of the most interesting vineyards of Rioja coexist with hundred year old olive groves. Descendants of the same families that pruned these vines over two centuries still work in the bush vine vineyards, using the same methods of cultivation. Telmo’s wines come from a combination of estate vineyards (and in the case of Altos de Lanzaga, exclusively estate vineyards), and those of growers in the area who cultivate under Telmo’s supervision. With LZ, the quality of the Telmo Rodriguez Rioja vineyards shines through the wine’s fresh fruit expression. A jam-packed cranberry+field herb nose (red lavender anyone?) is perfectly struck – fresh fruit and earth, lift and depth … The palate is perfumed, ovoid, lissom, and really harmonious – built beautifully on Telmo’s trademark natural fruit tannin-acid twin-track. Juicy and deft, it’s not just good and typical, nor merely delicious this is spectacular wine for the $$. Spain’s Greatest Pizza Wine just climbed a higher rung.