When the name Bodegas Roda is mentioned, Rioja fans go into raptures. Not even 40 years old, the bodega has already changed the world in one of Spain's flagship regions. Bodegas Roda is the life's work of Mario Rotlland and Carmen Daurella, who fell in love with vineyards in the north-western part of the Rioja Alta sub-region in the 1980s and decided to build a bodega here, albeit a bodega that sets new standards. The bodega was built in such a way that the must and wine are only moved by gravity; pumping over, which is often detrimental to quality, is completely avoided. This also applies to filtration; all Roda wines are bottled unfiltered. A highly qualified team looks after the approximately 150 hectares of vineyards as well as the ageing of the wines in the cellar. As far as the latter is concerned, no effort is too great to achieve the highest quality. Each parcel is vinified separately in order to make the best selection for the individualistic cuvées. The focus is of course clearly on Tempranillo, with Garnacha and Graciano being added in small quantities where necessary. The wines are fermented in large French oak barrels and matured in barriques in roughly equal parts new and used. The outstanding "Cirsion", which is without question one of the very best red wines on the Iberian Peninsula, is a very special wine. In the vineyard, it was discovered that in some years individualistic grapes - in other words: one in a thousand - exhibit a particular ripeness with a dense and concentrated aroma. These grapes are vinified and bottled separately and produce a unique, but also very, very rare wine with beguiling characteristics. Bodega Roda, which takes its name from the initials of its founders, has brought a breath of fresh air and a new approach to winemaking to the region. The wines set new standards and are already inspiring the next generation of oenologists and winemakers.
