Spain · Rioja · Rosé · Still · wine-wine · 1248771
Lowest offer: 98.33333333333333333333333333 GBP (Buy)
Offers: 2 · Bids: 0
| Price / case | Vintage | Packing | Qty | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 679.25 GBP | 2000 | 6 x 75cl | 1 | uk / United Kingdom |
| 295.00 GBP | 2012 | 3 x 75cl | 1 | uk / United Kingdom |
No active bids.
| Vintage | Packing | Offers | Bids | Market price | WA rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 6 x 75cl | 1 | 0 | ||
| 2008 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 9071.64 | 94 |
| 2008 | 3 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 94 | |
| 2008 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 4535.82 | 94 |
| 2009 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 12029.52 | 93 |
| 2009 | 3 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 3007.38 | 93 |
| 2009 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 6014.76 | 93 |
| 2010 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 9254.88 | 96 |
| 2010 | 3 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 2313.72 | 96 |
| 2010 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 4627.44 | 96 |
| 2011 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 7080.84 | 93 |
| 2011 | 3 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 1770.21 | 93 |
| 2011 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 93 | |
| 2012 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 96 | |
| 2012 | 3 x 75cl | 1 | 0 | 96 | |
| 2012 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 96 |
Rating: 95 –95
Bright, copper-hued orange. Intensely perfumed strawberry, cherry, blood orange and floral scents are complemented by emerging spiciness and a hint of nuttiness. Energetic red berry, citrus fruit and candied rose flavors show impressive depth as well as vivacity. Lingers with outstanding tenacity on the penetrating finish, which strongly echoes the floral, spice and red fruit notes. This singular wine is showing even better than it did a year ago.
Rating: 94 –94
Copper-tinted orange color. A wild, expansive bouquet displays an array of red fruit and floral qualities, along with hints of baking spices, vanilla, orange pith and toasted nuts. Stains the palate with gently sweet strawberry, tangerine, hazelnut pastry and candied rose flavors that are firmed by a spine of juicy acidity. Shows excellent depth as well as energy and finishes extremely long and silky, with resonating florality and a sappy red berry quality.
Rating: 96 –96
I love the rosé 2012 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva, perhaps the finest vintage (together with the 2010) of the modern releases produced again since 2008. It's a textbook example of this unusual rosé a blend of 60% Garnacho (they use the masculine form of the name of the grape), 30% Tempranillo and 10% Viura that matured in American oak barrels for four years, during which time the wine acquired an orange color and a nutty nose with notes of candied orange peel, mushroom and forest floor. It's only 12.5% alcohol and has a pH of 3.3. 15,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2018.
Rating: 93 –93
2011 is a warmer and riper year in Rioja than 2010, which was a superb vintage, and the 2011 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva suffers when tasted next to the 2010. It has candied fruit and a much riper profile but with the classical old oak and mushroom aromas of Tondonia. The color is less bright than the 2010, and there are already some brick-going-to-brown tones. There is some lightness in the palate with moderate acidity and refreshing notes of watermelon and rose petals. 12,000 bottles were filled in April 2017.
Rating: 96 –96
The 2010 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva was hitting on all cylinders. It was produced with 60% Garnacho (they use the masculine of the name here), 30% Tempranillo and 10% white Viura from vines averaging 91 years of age. Like all the wines, it fermented with indigenous yeasts (they have never used selected yeasts) in the 142 oak vats they have used since the beginning and then matured in old American oak barrels for four years. There is tons of complexity and nuance here; it's super elegant and layered, and as the wine sat in the glass, it developed more and more complex aromas, a subtle combination of balsam, red acid berries, a hint of medicine, fennel and wet chalk, a diesel-like touch, old wood and mushroom (beetroot?), licorice and yellow flowers, sweet spices... There's a lot more of everything. It's clean and crystalline, fresh and long, with terrific balance and depth. This has to be the finest rosado of recent times... 25,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2016.
Rating: 93 –93
The unique and personal 2009 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva is a little darker than the 2008 I tasted next to it. It also feels a little riper and nuttier, with some traces of ripe apricots and flowers. It's also fuller and not as sharp as the 2008 and has a dry, chalky/stony palate. These are unique wines that develop in bottle for a long time. 14,200 bottles were filled in April 2015.
Rating: 94 –94
I have had the chance drink a few bottles and taste (again) the 2008 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva next to the current release, which is 2009, a good thing for comparison's sake. And I thought I should write a new note, because I find that the wine is developing beautifully, gaining in complexity; the salty/umami feeling seems to be increasing with the time in bottle. It feels fresher than the 2009, and the nose has more nuances, with some mineral, diesel-like notes, nuts, decayed flowers and hints of wet stones. A unique rosé.
Rating: 94 –94
The only Gran Reserva rosé of the Rioja appellation (they were waiting for the appellation's back labels, as they have to print them especially for López de Heredia) makes a glorious comeback with the 2008 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva, which follows the previous 2000. This has a completely different profile from the rest of the rosé wines produced in Rioja—and the whole world (I think, as I have not tasted them all!). It really is a "clarete," not a rosé, as it's produced with a mixture of red and white grapes (60% Garnacha, 30% Tempranillo and 10% Viura) fermented and macerated together. It's a matured and developed rosé aged in used American oak barrels for four years and kept in vat and bottle to be released at age ten. There are always spicy and musky notes of cinnamon and dried flowers with a nutty twist, which the winery likes to describe as "halfway between a white and a red." It has an orange, onion-skin color with an unusual, characterful nose, a thousand miles removed from any rosé in the world, with notes of cinnamon, almonds and dried rose petals, but it feels still very young and it can develop more aromas in the bottle. The palate has sharp acidity and pungent flavors, which make the wine very long and persistent. This is not a wine for everybody; it can be one of those hate-it or love-it wines, an acquired taste. For comparison's sake, I tasted a bottle of the rosé from 1976, and the wine had a fully developed nose with a lot of aromas reminiscent of their whites, with hints of asparagus and herbal tea. Going back to the 2008, it showed totally primary and with aromas that made me think of hard candy and flowers. 13,200 bottles were filled in May 2014.
Rating: 88 –88
With the estate’s policy of holding the Rosada back, readers should note that the next scheduled release is not until 2017. The 2000 Tondonia Rosada Gran Reserva is completely sold out in the United States and the next is not due for several years. Anyway, it has a pale salmon hue. The nose is very complex for a rose with decayed rose petal and hints of nougat. The palate is very well-balanced with good weight and its searing, dry finish leaves you wanting more after the intriguing nose. Drink now if you are lucky to have some. I have adored, indeed occasionally worshiped, the wines of Lopez de Heredia for many years, so I am not ashamed to admit that visiting both their vineyard and their winery was a pilgrimage. Founded by Rafael Lopez de Heredia y Landeta in 1877, it has withstood the tide of corporatization and homogeneity, and epitomizes timeless, artisan winemaking in their own individual, almost solipsistic manner. Technology is noticeable by its absence here. For example, to quote her sister Maria-Jose at a tasting that I subsequently attended in London: “Indigenous yeasts have adapted to high temperatures. To control the temperature during fermentation, we open doors and windows” and “malolactic is the invention of modern winemakers.” I had to check whether this was 2012 or 1912. If you were to award points for charisma, then this producer would be in a league of its own. That would count for nothing if their wines were not distinguished, individual, long-lived and above all, delicious. It is commonly known that if you are seeking bags of fruit and lashings of oak, this is not the place to come. My views and these scores might be irrational to someone with a penchant for lush, voluptuous Rioja. Lopez de Heredia is the apotheosis of traditional, classic wines: taut, fresh, bucolic, utterly charming and amazingly long-lived. I spent two or three hours with winemaker Mercedes Lopez de Heredia, who was celebrating her birthday with, appropriately enough, a bottle of Tondonia Gran Reserva from her year of birth. I urge readers to access the video I took of Mercedes explaining the vineyard in her own breathless style. In the meantime, I will crack on with the wines “Wines should talk by themselves,” Maria-Jose enthused to her enraptured audience at a tasting in London. “My father was a vine maker, not a winemaker. Each wine is a reflection of a different land that my great-grandfather bought. Our wines respond to the history of Rioja.” I would add to her comments that since these are mainly aged wines, a bottle of Lopez de Heredia is an individual and each time you meet, you may see a different side to its personality. So treat these reviews as they are: snapshots at a given moment. We commence with their white wines and indeed, I know of several connoisseurs who rate these even better than their reds and I can sympathize with that view. “The white wines were made as a copy of Graves and were made to be aged,” Marie-Jose continued. “So they are made like reds and are harvested at the same time. They undergo skin contact for one, two or three days to absorb the preservative from the skins and pips. Viura gives complexity as it ages.” Importers: Think Global, Santa Barbara, CA, www.thinkglobalwines.com. and Berry Brothers & Rudd (UK)
Rating: 90 –90
A current release is the 2000 Vina Tondonia Rosado, a blend of 60% Garnacha, 30% Tempranillo, and 10% Viura aged for 4.5 years in oak and 6 years in bottle. Orange/pink in color, it still displays some fruit on the nose leading to a wine with notes of bitter almonds, hazelnuts, rhubarb, and cranberry. Definitely not your typical rose! A visit to the venerable Bodega Lopez de Heredia, located in the Rioja Alta capital of Haro, is akin to entering a time machine taking you back 100 years. Construction of the Bodega began in 1877 and continues without any apparent changes to the present day. The winery is operated by the voluble Maria Jose Lopez de Heredia, her sister Mercedes, and their father Pedro, still active into his 80s. All of the wines are produced from estate grown bush vines. Tondonia and Bosconia are two different vineyards; Bosconia has a larger percentage of Tempranillo and a different orientation. For an excellent overview of the estate, read Eric Asimov’s blog in the New York Times dated August 11, 2009. Importers: Think Global, Santa Barbara, CA and Polaner Selections, Mt. Kisco, NY; tel. (914) 244-0404