Telmo Rodriguez, Yjar, 2022
Telmo Rodriguez, Yjar, 2022
- 75cl
- 14%
- Red Still
- Garnacha
- Organic
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Drinking window: 2026 - 2037
Est. delivery in 2027
Telmo Rodríguez is one of the great names in modern Spanish wine, with a knack for finding old vineyards and forgotten corners of the country and giving them a new lease of life. Yjar is one of his most personal projects, made from old-vine Garnacha grown high in the hills of Rioja Oriental, a remote, windswept part of Rioja that has historically been overlooked by the region’s bigger names.
This is Rioja with the volume turned down and the detail turned up. Rather than the rich, heavily oaked style that defined so much of the region in the past, Yjar is all about freshness, perfume and place; alive with red fruit and mineral tension in the way that great Garnacha can be when it is grown somewhere it has to fight for survival.
What the critics say:
"Dark berries, blueberries, dried flowers and aromatic herbs. This has the precise tannins characteristic of the place, focused and chalky with a saline touch, enticing. Chalky, with fruit. Saline on the finish. Drink now."
"The 2022 Yjar comes from a warm and dry year and was made with grapes from old vines planted with a massal selection of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and others. It fermented in small open-top oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in foudres and barrels of different sizes for 30 months. It's surprisingly fine and elegant, not showing any heat or ripeness, coming through as very harmonious and fresh. It's fine-boned and balanced, with 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.72 and 5.08 grams of acidity, and it has very fine, elegant tannins. It keeps its quality in a super difficult vintage like 2022. 7,880 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2024."
Yjar draws from old Garnacha vines in Rioja Oriental, the easternmost and hottest subzone of Rioja, where the influence of the Mediterranean begins to assert itself over the Atlantic cool that defines the Alavesa. The vineyards sit at altitude on thin, limestone-rich soils that force the vines to dig deep and temper the naturally exuberant ripeness Garnacha might otherwise deliver in this climate. That combination of elevation and poor, rocky ground is what gives Yjar its freshness and mineral grip — qualities that distinguish it sharply from the fuller, more opulent Garnachas grown at lower elevations nearby.
Rioja is Spain's most famous wine region, a DOCa (Denominación de Origen Calificada) whose reputation was built on Tempranillo aged in American oak. But the region is far more diverse than that history suggests, encompassing three distinct subzones — Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa, and Rioja Oriental (formerly known as Rioja Baja) — with meaningfully different climates and soils. Rioja Oriental, where Yjar originates, has long been treated as the workhorse corner of the appellation, its hot summers and fertile soils historically producing bulk wine for blending. A new generation of producers is making the case that its old-vine Garnacha, especially on high-altitude limestone sites, deserves to be taken on its own terms entirely.
After a mild winter, 2022 threw everything it had at Rioja's vineyards: a punishing drought through summer followed by crucial September rains that arrived just when the grapes needed them most. The lack of water stressed the vines beautifully, concentrating flavours whilst keeping yields sensibly low, though producers had to work harder than usual to maintain freshness. Harvest began earlier than average, with many estates picking Tempranillo in the final weeks of September under ideal conditions.
What emerged is a vintage of real character — wines with more muscle and concentration than the preceding years, yet without the jammy heaviness that can plague hot vintages when the rains don't come. Tempranillo shows particular intensity, with deep colour and structured tannins that suggest these wines will reward patience, whilst Garnacha from higher altitude sites captured both power and perfume. The best 2022 Riojas are drinking well now if you fancy immediate pleasure, but we suspect the Crianzas and Reservas will hit their stride around 2027 and keep going for years beyond.
OUR GROWERS
Telmo Rodriguez
