Yjar is a single vineyard cuvée made by Rioja’s guru Telmo Rodriguez, a brilliant winemaker who wants the region to be recognised for its small production of terroir-driven wines.
Yjar’s Story
Yjar is sourced from Remelluri, a vineyard that has not been ill-treated since the Middle Ages. When the family acquired it in the 1960s, it was farmed with animals, fertilised with manure, and grass grew freely among the vines. The wine had been discretely produced for almost a decade before it was released at the Place de Bordeaux in 2021, alongside major international labels. This was the first Spanish wine to do so and was successfully received by wine critics. Yjar has its own style, ‘distant from traditional and future Rioja’, as stated in Vinous.
Vineyards & Winemaking
Remelluri is 3.8 hectares single vineyard planted at high altitude on the limestone foothills of the Sierra de Toloño in Rioja Alavesa. Here the grapes reveal the finesse of the marl soils and the austerity of the stones. The vines are trained as old Gobelet, with any replacements coming from massal selection. All are certified organic.
The winemaking is traditional. The wine is fermented using indigenous yeasts and matured in barrels of different sizes for approximately 30 months.
What We Think
2020 is the fourth vintage released by Telmo Rodriguez. Only 12,500 bottles are usually made so we agree with Jane Anson, who gave the previous vintage 100 points, and we highly recommend ‘to get on board because it is more than living up to its potential, and its tiny quantities means that first come are almost certainly first served’. This is a collector’s gem indeed!
Yjar 2020 - The Scores
The nose of the 2020 Yjar developed very floral notes with time in the glass, making it very aromatic, expressive and elegant. This is completely different from the other two reds, as this comes from a specific plot. It reveals the finesse of the marl soils and the austerity of the stones. It was a year of sorting and discarding (they had hail) to achieve the consistency they look for in this wine. The different varieties co-planted in the vineyard fermented together (there's more Garnacha here) in open-top oak vats with indigenous yeasts. The wine matured in foudres and barrels of different sizes for approximately 30 months. It's elegant and clean, with a seamless palate, very fine tannins and a vibrant mouthfeel. 12,656 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2023. - 96+ Robert Parker
Focused crystalline raspberry and cranberry fruit character, savoury, plenty of white pepper and fennel spice, intense, powerful, balanced, nuanced and gripping with a drawn out finish, providing more evidence of this compelling wine. 3.8ha of grapes, field blend. Native yeast fermentation, small size open top wooden vats, goblet trained high altitude vineyard, co-planted with massal selection. Foothills of Sierra de Tolono, 600-800m altitude. A challenging vintage that saw early rain and hail followed by a hot and dry summer, required intuition and rapid response - the kind of growing season that great winemakers rise to meet, as Telmo Rodriguez and Pablo Eguzkiza have done here. Harvest September 30 to October 7 - 96 points Jane Ansen