Oscar:

Do you know if Don Manuel has ever written a book on Rioja?

Do you know where to find a similar detailed map for the soils of Alavesa region?

SALUDos,
José

PS Wow!!! Have not heard the name of “El Brujo De La Rioja” (Ezequiel García) on any blog before. One of the unsung heroes of the region.

ftp://ftp.larioja.org/sig/ficheros_web/tematicos/0020/mapgeo.pdf

I hope this map, gives more light to this. in Rioja there are soils from Precambric to quaternary period.

Don Manuel Ruiz Hernandez, used to be one of my winemaking teacher 12 years ago and he used to simplify everything to retain some generic ideas. He was also teacher of rioja vignerons and he has this, sometimes, very generic ideas, to make people understand.

He used to say, Garnacha is not for aging but for rose and young wines. tempranillo for aged wines… Rioja baja is not good for aging wines and so on…

I was with Telmo yesterday, and he is farming without any doubt, the most consistent and serious viticulture in the region, at remelluri, but also in the tiny 100% biodinamic Las Beatas Vineyard…

there are microterroirs like everywhere, but old wines were made differently. Mainly following macro terroirs and specially villages. Felipe Nalda, Ezequiel García, winemakers at Riojanas and CVNE, used to know exactly how to make their blends and were to pick the grapes from to make their BDX and their Burgundy bottles!… what changed, is that they weren’t needing to tell everyone, everyday, how unique this places were and how intense their work was, because there was not so many people asking all the time…

Rioja used to be about Blending, and there is a lot to know about as well. … vintages, areas, villages, grapes…. I like this negoce model, but we need also to allow the purity of winemakers like Telmo…