Telmo Rodriguez Matallana 2020 (750ML)

96 WA / 96 JA / 95 DE / 95 JS

#44 James Suckling's Top 100 Spanish Wines of 2023

There is a change in the 2020 Matallana, as they have included Jean-Guillaume Prats (ex-Cos d'Estournel, ex-Lafite...) in the Ribera del Duero project, and the wine is going to be sold for the first time with this vintage through the négociant system of La Place de Bordeaux. The grapes from the five villages (mentioned but then crossed out on the label) were picked between the sixth and 18th of October and fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and oak vats. The wine matured in French oak barrels for 14 months. This is a little riper than the 2019 I tasted next to it, despite both being 14.5% alcohol (at least on the label). It follows the path of seriousness and austerity of the last few vintages and has a very calcareous mouthfeel with chalky tannins that lift up the finish. 19,624 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2022.Telmo Rodríguez and his partner Pablo Eguzkiza keep working in different regions, although still quite focused in Galicia, reducing the volumes for entry-level wines and going for more serious wines, moving away from generic varietal bottlings and going more for site-designated wines. I tasted the fine wine portfolio that has just been released, different vintages depending on the place, looking at the very small details of each. 2022 was a very warm year, and the wines from Rueda were saved by some rain in mid-September that slowed the ripening and achieved fresh wines. In Valdeorras, they have discontinued the Gaba do Xil red and replaced the white with a single-vineyard bottling from the O Barreiro lieu-dit, also reducing volumes. Here, they are releasing mostly 2020s, except for the younger white from 2022. They are both warm years with an early harvest that resulted in ripe wines, with the complication of lots of fungal diseases in 2020 that decimated the crop. In Galicia, the organic certification is complex when you have neighbors, so they are still in a transition moment. In Rioja, the current vintage is also (mostly) 2020, a challenging year with mildew, but they were lucky to escape the hail that didn't hit Lanciego but affected the vineyards in Labastida (Tabuérniga and Beatas were affected). The harvest was earlier than in 2019, but they still started the sixth of October with the terraces of Tabuérniga. Pablo Eguzkiza told me it was a strange year for Tempranillo, when Graciano ripened earlier than Tempranillo. - Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate

First time on the Place, from Vinedos de Matallana, care of the iconic winemaking partnership between Telmo Rodriguez and Pablo Eguzkiza, produced with fruit from plots across Burgos. The pair's signature mix of intensity and concentration playing against delicacy and reserved power is fully on dispay, a combination that should be imposible to achieve in the heat of Ribera del Duero. It's earthy, in the sense that it feels hewn from rocks that give a feeling of slate, granite, steely tannic hold, fine but intense, all of which melts into fragrant gunsmoke, oyster shell, lemon rind, raspberry, pomegranate and red cherry fruits. The flavours are toasted and yet cooling, a wine of contasts and texture, and utterly compelling. Powerful yet the barest lightness of being. Begs you to find out more. Lucky us that these wines are going through the Place, bringing them to wider attention. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

A brand new wine to the Place de Bordeaux this year and the first wine from Ribera del Duero via a collaboration between Telmo Rodriguez and Pablo Eguzkia (also of Yjar on the Place). A field blend of massal-selection grapes - Tinto Fino, Navarro, Valenciano, Albillo 'and others' are chosen from 11 vineyards across five villages with different soils and landscapes totalling 21.5 hectares. This is softly floral on the nose with bright red berry notes. Taught and direct, this doesn't deviate too much from the centre of the palate - the spiced, tobacco-laced black fruit and clear mineral wet stone, graphite and pencil lead all in one line from start to finish, tangy and a little constricted. Feels well worked no doubt, smooth and defined, just not so expansive and wide at this point. Coiled and knitted with tons of liquorice and savouriness on the finish. A real balancing act of complexity and flavour layering with underlying power and promise of great things to come. Ageing 14 months in French oak barrels. Interestingly, the label features a series of redacted, blacked-out lines covering vineyard names as regulations prevent the naming of such. - Georgina Hindle, Decanter

A very elegant and complex red with super fine tannins that show a chalky and subtle white pepper character. Medium body. Fine integrated tannins which are creamy. Yet they are chewy and very typical for the region. So attractive now but this is built to age beautifully. A very refined wine for Ribera del Duero. Drinkable now, but better in three or four years. - James Suckling