Remelluri Reserva 2009 Cellar Release
Remelluri Reserva 2009 Cellar Release
Remelluri is one of the world’s most timeless and iconic wine-producing landscapes. Remelluri Reserva is the original wine from Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri, sourced from their most important vineyards consisting of 148 plots on 25 sites of the property. Only indigenous varieties are used, planted from 1918 until today, averaging 40 years old. The blend consists primarily of goblet-trained tempranillo, garnacha, and graciano varieties with an average yield of 27hl/ha—organic farming, low intervention, unfiltered, and minimal sulfur at bottling.
This 2009 Reserva is a direct, authentic cellar release of guaranteed provenance, stored under optimal conditions at Remelluri in Labastida, Rioja, until refrigerated shipment to the US in the autumn of 2023. It was selected by Remelluri owner and winemaker Telmo Rodríguez for the exceptional nature of the vintage and beautiful evolution of the wine, offering a fully-cellared Reserva expression from Remelluri to the market. While the 2009 vintage has recently entered into its ideal drinking window, it will undoubtedly repay additional cellar time, offering enjoyment for a decade or more to come. De Maison Selections verifies refrigerated shipping and storage conditions throughout the wine’s journey to local merchants. Proper temperature and shipping conditions are essential factors in the enjoyment of well-cellared wines. The 2009 Remelluri Reserva cellar release is extremely limited in quantity.
Vintage – 2009 is among the top vintages of the decade, along with 2004 and 2005. 2009 Remelluri Reserva features aromas of wild earthy red fruit intermixed with notes of vanilla and cinnamon, and a satiny texture with round, fine-grained tannins in a classical and very well-structured style. This is a great vintage for Remelluri Reserva that is drinking well now, yet will age gracefully for another decade or more. The growth cycle ran around 10 days earlier than previous years, starting with flowering in May/June. High summer temperatures provided good alcoholic maturity, with phenolic ripeness occurring much later into September and October. Low rainfall in the summer months reduced quantity and concentrated the grape skin-to-juice ratio, resulting in a powerful red wine with good aging potential. Hydric stress was lessened by rainfall on 16-18 September, which helped balance the phenolic and alcoholic maturity of the grapes. From this point onwards, the weather conditions were sunny and dry until the end of the harvest, allowing the grapes to reach perfect maturity with little incidence of vineyard diseases.
Vinification – All of the grapes are hand-selected for quality in the vineyard in small baskets. Grapes are destemmed, crushed, and the must is fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel tanks and old, open-top foudres. It was then aged 24 months in foudres and barrels of various sizes and origin, fined with gelatin before bottling, followed by 12 years of bottle aging in the Remelluri cellar. Made with low intervention, unfiltered, and very minimal sulfur at bottling.