Telmo Rodriguez, Yjar, 2021

Telmo Rodriguez is one of Spain's great viticultural restorers, and Yjar is among his most personal projects: old-vine Garnacha from the high, wind-battered slopes of Rioja Oriental, a corner of Rioja that most of the appellation's grand names have spent decades ignoring. These are not the plush, internationally styled Riojas of the 1990s. Yjar is angular, aromatic, and distinctly itself — dried cherry, wild thyme, iron filings, and a saline edge that comes straight from the altitude and the schist.

The 2021 vintage brought freshness and definition to Rioja Oriental's naturally warm character, and this shows in the wine's energy. There's real grip here, but it's the grip of place rather than extraction. We'd open it now with a good hour's air, but it has plenty left to give until 2035 — this is Garnacha for people who think Garnacha can't be serious. Telmo would disagree, politely but firmly.