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Lopez de Heredia 2010 Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva Magnum
£90.00
In stock
SKU
SPRIRLHTR10M
Vina Tondonia is the top single-vineyard wine of Lopez de Heredia, one of Rioja's most traditional producers. The wine has spent six years in American oak casks, followed by several years in bottle, released to the market when it is semi-mature.
Tondonia is a blend of four varieties: Tempranillo, Garnacha (or Garnacho, as they call it), Graciano, and Mazuelo.
This wine is the most complex of all their reds, not quite as concentrated as Vina Bosconia, but easily the most age-worthy. I have had many old bottles of Tondonia; they seem to live forever. 2010 is an excellent vintage for this wine. It has more concentration and mid-palate weight than usual but retains its usual finesse and complexity. The highly aromatic notes include Spanish leather, undergrowth, spices, dried herbs, and the merest hint of black cherry.
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The Producer
R. López de Heredia
R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia, known as López de Heredia, is one of the three original founding Bodegas in Rioja and the only one that is still run by the descendants of its founder, Don Rafael López de Heredia, a Chilean of Basque origin.
I have long admired these wines - this is my favourite wine producer in Rioja and the whole of Spain. The wines are highly complex, concentrated, and age-worthy; above everything, they are profoundly traditional and authentic.
The reds start with Viña Cubillo: a Crianza only in name, more akin to a Reserva or Gran Reserva. There are two Reservas: Viña Bosconia and Viña Tondonia, both sourced from single parcels of vines with varying blends of grape varieties. Both undergo extended ageing: typically, Bosconia will spend five years in a cask and six years for Tondonia. There is also an exceptionally rare Gran Reserva which typically spends ten years in barrel. You might be mistaken for thinking these are oaky wines; they are far from it.
The whites produced here are exceptional: Viña Gravonia and Viña Tondonia Blanco. Exquisite wines that are as rare as they are lovely. Again, long barrel ageing brings remarkably complex and mature notes to these great whites which defy ageing. I have been lucky to taste back to 1964 (and 1948 for the Reds) and can attest to their slow development and supreme complexity.
The Wine Region
Rioja
Rioja is, along with Sherry, Spain's most famous wine region. Its red wines are based on the noble grape variety of Tempranillo. The red wines of Rioja are classified according their minimum ageing requirements in cask and bottle before being released to the market, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva, with the term Cosecha being used for wines which are young, or do not tend to follow this classification. The wines have an affinity with oak, particularly with the more aromatic American oak, and like many other regions of the world there is tension between the traditionalists and the modernists, with the latter being exemplified by the wines of Artadi and Pujanza
CVNE 2020 Rioja Crianza Cune
£10.70
Pujanza 2019 Rioja 'Hado'
£19.90
