Luis Rodriguez, the Heart & Soul of Ribeiro

Introducing the Patron Saint Edit, a weekly curated offer on bottles we can’t stop thinking about, difficult to source cuvées, and unusual gems that belong in your cellar.

The other day, I was looking up at the shelves realizing that where we once had a super heavy Italian white set we currently have more Portuguese and Spanish white wines, which says something about where my attention has wandered. These range from plush, leesy Verdejo from Castilla y Leon and foot-pressed Arinto from 100-year-old vines in the Azores to viura mingled with sherry in a 1700s style recipe from Rioja. 

This week, we bring to you an offer on one of these producers whose wines I cannot stop thinking about: Luis Rodriguez. This is a winemaker whose gravity in Ribeiro—a region of Galicia once cursed by disease pressure, civil war, economic instability and a resulting industry of bulk wine production—is a felt presence, a kind of wise guide shifting the center of winemaking toward serious methods and joyful results. 

Last year, I visited Ribeiro and was swept into the heart of the region while on a boat gliding down the Miño River, gazing up at the terraced vineyards along steep inclines, some ancient and overtaken by the lapping waters. It's a place of dramatic topography and abandoned traditions to which Rodriguez has faithfully returned, reviving red wine making with archaic grape varieties like Caiño Longo, Caiño Redondo, Ferrol, and Brancellao, and elevating the great white grape Treixadura to the former glory of its 1600s heyday. 

We have every cuvée we could get our hands on of these age-worthy wines, including his top releases, each entirely different from the next. Try one or collect them all.