Telmo Rodríguez Gago Toro 2020
£23.45
The wine
Gago sits a step above Dehesa Gago in the Toro range, drawn from older Tinta de Toro bush vines and given time in oak rather than released young.
Those sands are the reason Toro matters. Phylloxera struggles in them, so a great many of the bush vines here are old and ungrafted, and the fruit they carry is dark, thick-skinned and naturally high in alcohol. Telmo Rodríguez and Pablo Eguzkiza founded their Compañía de Vinos in 1994 and have spent three decades travelling Spain to recover forgotten vineyards and near-extinct varieties, from Rioja and Toro to Málaga and the Sierra de Gredos. Toro was for a long time a source of cheap bulk wine, and the work of the last thirty years has been to show what its old vines can do when the fruit is picked earlier and handled with restraint.
The producer
Telmo Rodríguez
View all Telmo Rodríguez winesTelmo Rodríguez is one of the most restless and influential figures in modern Spanish wine. For three decades he has travelled the country reviving forgotten vineyards and near-lost varieties, from Rueda and Rioja to Toro, Málaga and Cebreros, always with the same conviction that great wine is written in old vines.
His approach is that of a vineyard archaeologist. Where others saw abandoned parcels, he saw heritage worth saving, working plot by plot to coax honesty and clarity from each terroir rather than imposing a house signature.
Basa is his benchmark Rueda, a Verdejo of aromatic lift and stony freshness that has become a modern classic. Corriente brings the same clear-eyed craft to Rioja, a red of bright fruit and easy elegance that wears its region lightly.
Approachable yet deeply serious, these are wines that reward curiosity. Explore the work of a winemaker who gave Spain's overlooked corners their voice back.
