2023 Telmo Rodriguez Pegaso Zeta
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The drying, grippy feel on your gums and tongue, as with strong tea. It comes from the skins and seeds of black grapes and from oak, and softens with age.
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The bars follow how sommeliers taste (WSET): body, tannin, sweetness and acidity, each from low to high.
Body: powerful. From ; 15% alcohol.
Tannin: medium. From ; aged in oak.
Sweetness. Red wine from is almost always dry.
Acidity: low. From .
Aromas: dark fruit, spice and red fruit, typical of
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Log inThe Telmo Rodriguez Pegaso Zeta comes from old, organic vineyards planted on granite and shale soils. It offers a highly refined and accessible expression of the Sierra de Gredos terroir. The wine has a deep ruby red color, and the nose reveals notes of red fruit, blackberry, and orange zest. The palate is soft and refined with ripe tannins and mild acidity. It has a beautiful, long, mineral finish. No added yeasts were used, and the wine was aged for six months in 500-liter barrels of mixed origin and age, followed by another six months in stainless steel tanks. Like all Telmo wines, this wine is organically produced, meaning no artificial fertilizers or pesticides were used.
Winemaker Telmo Rodríguez is a phenomenon in the Spanish wine world. He studied at the University of Bordeaux and later in the Rhône region with the renowned August Clape. He was the winemaker at La Granja Senora de Remelluri, his father's bodega in Rioja. He left there to make what some call his own wines in various regions of Spain. Telmo lives in Madrid and drives to the various winemaking projects. In a short time, his wines have established themselves on the international stage. One example: Telmo has already been included among the top 10 Spanish producers in Tom Stevenson's Wine Report. Telmo's signature style is his choice of native grape varieties, which are also pruned according to native methods. This means he works exclusively with bush vines—vines that are not trained along wires but grow as independent shrubs. The bushes are also spaced further apart than with wire training. In warm Spain, this has two advantages: each vine receives sufficient moisture, even in dry vintages, and the bunches hang in the shade of their own leaves, reducing their stewing. Telmo prefers to work with old vines, so the roots are deep enough to find moisture. This also benefits the quality of the grapes. Old vines yield lower, but are of high quality and complexity. Although not formally certified, Telmo practices organic farming: he uses no artificial fertilizers or insecticides/pesticides.
FACT: In the "Attachments" tab, you'll find the official fact sheet for this fine wine. We'll automatically send it to you when you order it. The wine is stored in our climate-controlled Wine Warehouse, and if you pick it up, you'll often receive a nice discount. You'll see your discount immediately when you select "Pick up" at checkout. We're located in Dordrecht, right next to the A16 motorway with ample parking. Click here for our address.
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Character
The wine
Origin
Bottle
Wine features
Parker
The Wine Advocate
RP 92+
Reviewed by:
Luis Gutiérrez
Drink Date:
2024 - 2028
The 2022 Pegaso Zeta fermented in different materials and also matured in different vessels: oak, stainless steel and clay. Perhaps it has a little more slate in the blend this year, which seems to work quite well in warm vintages, and also because the fire affected the vines more in the granite part. This wine has a lot of finesse and really shows incredibly well for what the vintage looked like early on. It is perhaps a more Mediterranean wine, with lots of aromatic herbs and a more extroverted personality. The 15% alcohol was unnoticeable and balanced by a pH of 3.3 and 5.84 grams of acidity. 28,008 bottles were produced. It was bottled between June and October 2024.
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Winemaker Telmo Rodriguez is labeled as one of the young lions of the Spanish wine industry. He studied at the University of Bordeaux and later in the Rhône with the famous August Clape. He was the winemaker of La Granja Senora De Remelluri, his father's bodega in Rioja. He left there to become what some would call a flying winemaker. However, Telmo prefers to call itself a 'driving winemaker'. he lives in Madrid and drives his car to the areas where he makes wine. In a short time his wines have found a place on the international playing field. One example: in Tom Stevenson's Wine Report 2008, Telmo is included among the top 10 producers from Spain. We once again spoke extensively with Telmo Rodriguez. That is always a pleasure. If you sit down with him you always learn something or he gives food for thought. What makes this 'conscience of the Spanish wine world' so special? When Telmo completed his studies in Bordeaux and then had internships with people like Chave (Hermitage), Clape (Cornas) and Dürrbach (Trévallon) he came back to Spain. There he saw other Spaniards who had studied in France bringing French grape varieties and customs to Spain. For example, there was more and more wire guidance, while the Spanish system had always been free-standing sticks. Telmo concluded that he wanted to focus on the old qualities of Spain such as freestanding sticks, indigenous grape varieties and field blends. In addition, he was the first in Spain to introduce modern labels and he opposes the rigid Spanish wine laws.
Free standing sticks
Spain used to be a country of bush vines: the sticks were so far apart per area and per vineyard that they could each get enough water. If you place your sticks far apart with wire articulation, the stick will grow far and become much too large. With wire articulation, you therefore need many more sticks per hectare. However, the problem is that there is not enough water for this and you therefore have to irrigate, in areas that often already suffer from a shortage of water. In addition, the grapes hang more in the shade with free-standing sticks, which gives less chance of 'burning' and leads to less stewed fruit and fresher acids. The only downside to free-standing canes is that more manual work is involved in vineyard management and harvesting. Telmo works almost exclusively with bush vines.
Native grape varieties
It was clear to Telmo that there are so many good indigenous varieties in Spain that importing 'the big five' (Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet and Syrah) from France was not necessary at all. He was one of the first to produce good Rueda from Verdejo and Viura, he embraced Mencia and Godello in Valdeorras, Monastrell in Alicante, Moscatel in Malaga, Garnacha in Cebreros…. In the mid-1990s he was still considered crazy with this philosophy, but now everyone is following him.
Field blends
There used to be many vineyards in Spain with various grape varieties mixed together, also called 'field blends'. It is often argued against field blends that the varieties (that are picked together) are not all ripe at the same time. It speaks for the fact that diversity and disease resistance increase and that it promotes complexity. Telmo now has two vineyards with field blends in production. In Rioja he makes it Las Beatas (named after the vineyard, first vintage awarded with 97 points by Parker) and in Valdeorras Las Caborcas. Beautiful, original wines!
Spanish wine laws
Telmo was the first to remove the word Reserva from a Rioja in 1995. In his words: 'I ask my wines how long they want to stay in the wood'. One year grapes can easily handle a 12-month aging in wood, but not in another year. There was consternation about Las Beatas: the Consecho initially did not want to approve the wine made with a field blend as Rioja… while there was a time when all Rioja was made that way! Consecho did not push this to the extreme and ultimately fortunate for them, given the enormously high international appreciation.
De 2023 Pegaso Zeta toont een geur van rijp rood fruit, bramen en sinaasappelzest met mediterrane kruiden, een minerale ondertoon, zachte maar rijpe tannines en frisse zuren waardoor de 15% alcohol goed geïntegreerd aanvoelt. Daardoor vormt hij een ideale partner voor rund, varken, lam, charcuterie en barbecue; het fruit snijdt door vetsmaken heen, de zuren verfrissen, de tannines geven structuur bij rood vlees en de kruidigheid sluit mooi aan bij gerookte en kruidige bereidingen. Kies voor gegrilde of licht gekarameliseerde stukken zoals medium-rare entrecote, gemarineerde of langzaam gegaarde varkensschouder, gegrilde lamskoteletten met rozemarijn, of een selectie van gedroogde ham en pittige chorizo om de wijn op zijn best te laten spreken.
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