The first Spanish lands on La Place de Bordeaux: Telmo Rodriguez. And many Italians

For some people, it is an obsolete model, but La Place de Bordeaux, the complex distribution system which brings together Chateaux, négociants and wine merchants from all over the world, on which the trading of Bordeaux wines is based since the seventeenth century, proves to be still useful, indeed very useful to the cause. And not only for Bordeaux wines but also for the ones - very few and selected - from the rest of the world, which over the years have been lucky enough to be part of what is the oldest and most solid commercial network of wine.
The opening to the great Italian labels had already arrived in 2008, when 15 prestigious négociants of Bordeaux decided to distribute all over the world (with the exception of Italy, the USA and Canada) the legendary Masseto, with the 2006 vintage. Ornellaia, Ornellaia Bianco, Serre Nuove, Le Volte and Poggio alle Gazze, exclusively for Asia, Arab Emirates, Africa and South America, also pass through the Place de Bordeaux. As well as the Solaia, and in small quantities also the Tignanello and Cervaro della Sala of the Antinori family, but also two other legendary labels of Tuscany, such as Bibi Graetz’s Colore and Petrolo’s Galatrona, the flagship winery of Luca Sanjust’s Val d’Arno di Sopra.
Then, in 2019, it was the turn of the first Brunello di Montalcino, with the wines of Luce della Vite, Frescobaldi’s umbrella brand for Luce, Lucente and Luce Brunello di Montalcino, distributed in Asia, Africa and the Middle East (except Japan) by 11 Bordeaux négociants. Finally, just to mention some of the top labels of the Belpaese present on the Place de Bordeaux, the debut of the first Etna Rosso, that of Giovanni Rosso, historical griffe of Barolo, represented by five of the most renowned négociants, Joanne, Diva, Barriere Frères, Louis Vialard and Ld.
An exclusive circle of which, among others, the Chilean Seña and Clos Apalta of Casa Lapostolle, the Californian Opus One of Mondavi and Inglenook of Francis Ford Coppola and, as of today, also the first Spanish: YJAR, the latest creation of the Rioja winemaker Telmo Rodriguez, author (along with 150 other Iberian wine professionals), in 2016, of a Manifesto in defense of the indigenous varieties of Spain.