Rioja Alta is home to many of Rioja’s most well-recognized names, including López de Heredia, Muga, CVNE, and La Rioja Alta S.A. but it is also here you will find José Gil writing his own story of Rioja. Before modern or traditional Rioja, there was a simpler style of whole-cluster, co-fermented, and shortly-aged wines that were as naked and honest an expression of Rioja as one could find. So it should come as no surprise that when José Gil started his own project, he would follow in his ancestors’ footsteps and be more interested in the vineyard than the cellar. But these wines are far from simple. This wine evokes a dark brambly complexity with vibrancy and a mineral core. As the wine opens, it changes with each sip. The style is not one that is of traditional Rioja, but I wish more people were making Rioja like this. 

Labastida is a blend of Tempranillo from two vineyards both over 500 meters in elevation, planted with 45 and 80 year-old vines, with some 10% Garnacha and a tiny percentage of white varieties, . The grapes are co-fermented in concrete tanks, then aged in neutral French oak in Jose’s cellar in San Vincente. Jose feels this wine represents the essence of the place of his birth – forthright, expressive, uncomplicated but far from simple, and something that could only come from his vineyards. Truly an ancestral expression of Rioja.

Pairing:  tapas, hamburgers, stews, pork, lamb and chorizo

Grape: Tempranillo, Garnacha, Viura, Palomino 

Soil: Clay-limestone 

Viticulture: Organic