Telmo Rodriguez
Branco de Santa Cruz
Valdeorras
2019

The producer

Telmo, like Sting, is known universally by his first name, such is his winemaking fame. Lesser known is his friend and business partner partner Pablo Uguzkiza. Compania de Vinos Telmo Rodriguez was founded in 1994 and today produces wine in many regions across Spain. From ploughing mountainside vineyards by horse in Bierzo to reviving sweet Molino Real in Malaga via vineyards in Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Toro and beyond, their influence on winemaking in many areas of Spain have been immense.

Remelluri was the Rodriguez’ family base in Rioja, and Bodega Lanzaga was founded, in Rioja Alavesa, in 1998.  Rioja single vineyard wines La Estrada, Las Beatas and Tabuerniga are true Grand Crus and arguably on a par with the finest of the region.  For many years the company has also been focused on producing and preserving native varieties, such as for example Monastrell and Godello. All vineyards are farmed biodynamically, and bush vine trained in the traditional Spanish fashion. Today the company farms around 80 hectares of vineyards of over 40 different grape varieties.

The wine

The Branco de Santa Cruz 2019 by Telmo Rodriguez is a distinctive white wine from the Valdeorras region, embodying the essence of its village, Santa Cruz. Crafted from a blend of Godello, Treixadura, Doña Branca, and Palomino grapes, this wine is a product of eco-friendly vineyard practices, including manual harvesting and native yeast fermentation. It ages for 10 months in barrels and foudres, offering a genuine expression of its unique terroir, characterized by its high-altitude granitic soils.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.