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Telmo Rodríguez
Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Rías Baixas and other Spanish regionsSpainOrganic Wine

Telmo Rodríguez

TEL-mo rod-REE-geth
Gold Tier
Last verified · August 2026
Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez works vineyards across Spain, from Málaga to Valdeorras.

The Free Bacchus Story

Telmo Rodríguez left his family's Rioja estate in the 1990s and spent the following decades doing something unusual: travelling Spain looking for forgotten vineyards in regions the modern industry had written off, and restarting them.

Málaga, Rueda, Toro, Cebreros, Rías Baixas — the project has been to recover old plantings and local varieties before they disappeared entirely, which in several cases happened with a few years to spare. The farming across the estates is organic and biodynamic in practice.

Telmo Rodríguez
More than eighty hectares are divided into some three hundred and fifty-five separate plots.

Eighty hectares, divided into three hundred and fifty-five separate plots scattered from Málaga to Valdeorras, at an average of under a quarter of a hectare each. This is the precise opposite of how a modern wine business is assembled.

Las Beatas, the recovered hillside in Rioja Alavesa, is the flagship at around three hundred and fifty dollars. Tim Atkin's Rioja Report has awarded Gold.

The certification is not complete, and we say so. Track B here reflects verified practice with certification underway rather than a producer who has declined to certify, a different situation from the philosophical refusals elsewhere on this list, and worth distinguishing.

“the future is in the past”
Telmo RodríguezCo-founder, on why he spends his time on abandoned vineyards, 2025 · Liberty Wines

Why it’s remarkable

355 plots
eighty hectares, divided into three hundred and fifty-five pieces
An average of under a quarter of a hectare each, scattered from Málaga to Valdeorras. This is the precise opposite of how a modern wine business is assembled, and every one of those parcels has to be visited, worked and picked separately.
1994, one plot
the whole thing started with a single parcel in Navarra
Rodríguez left his family’s Rioja estate and began Compañía de Vinos with Pablo Eguzkiza on one piece of ground. The project since has been to find vineyards the modern industry had written off and restart them.
A few years to spare
some of these plantings were close to gone
The recoveries include Moscatel in Málaga’s Axarquía and Garnacha at Cebreros north of Madrid — old vineyards and local varieties that in several cases would have disappeared entirely within a few more seasons. Nobody was going to replant them.
Not a refusal
Track B here means certification underway, not certification declined
The farming across the estates is organic and biodynamic in practice, with the certification process incomplete. That is a materially different position from the producers elsewhere on this list who have decided against certifying on principle, and we would rather distinguish the two than let one word cover both.

Free Bacchus Verification

Track B
Verified chemical-free practice, corroborated independently where formal certification is not held.
Re-confirmed annually against the three conditions for Track B listing. How re-verification works
Flagship
Las Beatas
Best award
Gold · Tim Atkin Rioja Report

If you’re buying

Price
Around US$350 for the flagship bottling. Approximate, and it moves with vintage and market.
Drinking now
The regional bottlings are ready on release and improve for several years. Las Beatas is made in tiny quantity and rewards a decade.
Serving
Reds at 16–17°C, whites at 11–12°C. Decant a young Las Beatas for an hour.
Availability
Generally obtainable through specialist retailers.
Tastes like
Spanish reds and whites made without the oak signature — red fruit, herbs and a savoury, transparent structure that varies by region.
Pairs with
Roast lamb, grilled vegetables, or a hard sheep’s cheese.
Price bands are approximate and move with vintage, market and region. They are a guide, not a quotation.

Cheat sheet

Save it to your phone. Everything you need to recognise this producer, and three things worth saying about it, at a glance in a shop or across a table.

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