Palacios Remondo Propiedad Garnacha 2020

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

95% Garnacha with a bit of Monastrell and field blend Viura, this is a blend of five old vineyards at 600+m altitude under Mt Yerga. Las Mulgas is the oldest of these, at 90 years old and 650m. The others are Corral de Serrano, Valviejo, Valfrio, and Valmira. These vineyards represent the ‘limit’ for Garnacha – any higher than this and you get unripe, thin-skinned Garnachas. Fermented in Bocoi (foudre), aged in 650l French oak and bottled unfiltered. From 2010, Propiedad is the reward of a decade’s intense labour by Álvaro in returning the Alfaro vineyards to their ‘natural’ viticultural direction: organically-grown bush-vines of Yerga’s heritage Garnacha genetics.

About

Founded in 1945 by José Palacios Remondo, the father of Álvaro Palacios and of Chelo, who currently manage the family winery. Álvaro Palacios is one of the outstanding names of the Spanish wine scene. He is the creator of great wines like L’Ermita in Priorat and La Faraona in El Bierzo.

In the Vineyard

ALFARO

Alfaro is in the far south-eastern corner of la Rioja, and is the largest production village in Rioja, with 3750 hectares of vines (Laguardia is second). Here, on the southern shores of Rio Ebro, the soils tend to be fertile alluvium – too productive for growing quality grapes. Some of the world’s finest vegetables come from the rich red soils around Alfaro … piquillo peppers, artichokes, asparagus and much more.

The fruit for Palacios Remondo wines is no run-of-the-mill product of rich dirt, though. Their holdings are 15 kilometres west of Alfaro, high up in the pale clay hills under Mount Yerga. Above 550m altitude, this is one of the highest parts of the entire Rioja appellation, cold and very late-ripening. Yerga is in the Sierra Yllera, part of the Sistema Iberico which divides this last vestige of Rioja from Soria, the wild eastern-most part of Ribera del Duero. In the rain-shadow of the mountain, rainfall is a very low 360mm (compared to 550 in Haro).

Under Mount Yerga, the Palacios family have 110 hectares of their own vineyards and a further 60 hectares are rented from two families with whom they have a long association. With the Yerga Mountain looming behind at 1100 metres, the main vineyard, ‘La Montesa’ is at 550-650 metres altitude. The vineyards of the families from which they rent from are just below in front. The oldest vineyards, above La Montesa, are at the limit of Garnacha’s ability to ripen.

The soil is a coarse chalky quarternary clay riddled with ‘pebbles’ – quite big rocks of various mineral origins (metamorphic volcanic lava, limestone, quartz and basalt). In profile, most vineyards have 2 metres of ferrous clay and limestone mixture over a deep chalk layer, another layer of red soil and a very deep layer of lime.

PALACIOS REMONDO NOW

While growing up in Alfaro, Alvaro witnessed the dumbing down of Rioja after the Civil War, where Tempranillo became all that was validated, and Rioja itself became a simple, price-oriented brand. Alvaro allows that the bad decision-making of the 80s and 90s was the result of a lack of confidence, and calls the focus on varietal Tempranillo an ‘invasion’, particularly on the soils below the river, where 80% of the 23,000 hectares of Rioja Baja is planted to irrigated Tempranillo, producing, as Alvaro terms it, ‘artificial wine’.

In the years under Alvaro’s guidance, the vineyards and wines of Palacios Remondo have undergone extraordinary change. Once a conventional Rioja producer based on industrially-farmed Tempranillo and the Crianza-Reserva-etctera model of production, nowadays the vineyards of Palacios Remondo are organic and bio-dynamically grown low-crop plantings of Garnacha, with a scattering of white Viura. Any Tempranillo in the Palacios Remondo wines is purchased from good growers near Haro on the north shore of the Ebro.

Avoiding industrial clones from the nurseries, all plantings are massale cuttings of these hills’ ancient genetic selections, planted on Rupestres de lot rootstocks. While all ancient and recent plantings are ‘en vaso’ (goblet-pruned bush vines), the 20-some year old plantings of la Montesa itself are on trellises. Alvaro plans to spend the next 10 years re-grafting this main vineyard to bush vines. This would not seem necessary to most, given the outstanding quality already reached. It is simply the best thing to do, though, according to Alvaro, and therefore mandated.

In the Winery

Fermented in Bocoi (foudre), aged in 650l French oak and bottled unfiltered.

The 2020 Vintage at Bodegas Palacios Remondo

Where in the World is Bodegas Palacios Remondo?

Bodegas Palacios Remondo is located in Alfaro in the far south-eastern corner of la Rioja, and is the largest production village in Rioja, with 3750 hectares of vines (Laguardia is second). Alfaro is in the old generically named Baja or Oriental sub-region of Rioja.

Baja translates to Low and is being replaced with Oriental given the negative quality conation of the word.

There is a growing push to better recognise quality terroir by define the:

1. Quality soils in Rioja at a macro level, equivalent to Appellation Bourgogne in Burgundy;
2. The individual villages or Pueblo of Rioja equivalent to a village in Burgundy like Gevrey-Chambertin or Chassagne-Montrachet; and
3. The special places (like lieu dit in Burgundy) & individual vineyards within the villages.

Only time will tell how this unfolds. In the meantime we’ll be including information on all of the wines we list from Rioja.

The area is vast with over 60,000Ha of vines planted. As Scott Wasley puts it, it’s the equivalent of using South East Australia to classify the wines NSW, Victora, SA and Tasmania. In the flyover below at the 20sec mark you’ll see a high level geological map of general soil types, it’s clear they run perpendicular to the general sub-region orientation along a number of rivers, valleys and sub-plains. The fact that I’ve mentioned both the split in soil types, and, significant geological changes if enough for any vigneron worth their salt to call for a more detailed differentiation between key viticultural areas of Rioja. Politics, corruption and a bias toward bland mass-produced wines the adversaries of progress on mapping the region. Without more appropriate classification of vineyards we have to rely on the reputation of quality producer and their track record in the glass. Perhaps not a bad thing for an individual wine. Not great for the reputation of a region as a whole.

Although not an official classification the map below would be a start to delineating between different areas of Rioja based on the Valleys within it. You can clearly see the rivers running through each of the valleys.

General in nature the soil map below offers some guidance on the geology of Rioja.