Have I ever really tasted a Rioja wine before tasting Bodegas López de Heredia? I found myself asking this question during a tasting led by Rick Fisher, program director for the Spanish Wine Scholar at the Wine Scholar Guild. The winery, founded in 1877, is one of the first three bodegas in the Rioja region and throughout the past148 years and 4 generations, the López de Heredia family has navigated through vintages of excellence and hardship alongside wars both civil and world. Their prized vineyard, Viña Tondonia, was founded in 1913-14 on the right bank of the Ebro River which over time has carved out a rounded shell like depression in the land. The vineyard takes its name from an old term for the way the Ebro meanders at this location and the soils here feature alluvial clay and large amounts of limestone. Vineyard plantings are Tempranillo (70%) and Garnacha (15%), with Mazuelo and Graciano making the remainding amounts. The winery has their own cooperage where they dry age and construct American oak barrels sourced from the Appalachian Mountains.

Wine Tasting & Production Style

White Wine - Minimum 6 years in bottle which allows the rough edges of oak to become polished and balanced. Time allows a greater bouquet of aromas to shine, including baking spices, bitter almonds, vanilla and walnut which are trademarks of their style.

Red Wine - Must is fermented in large 240 hectoliter vats with native yeast, (mainly Scharomyces, Kloekera apiculata and Tomlaspora rosei) then later aged in smaller oak 225 liter barrels. Toward the end of the aging process, egg whites are added to barrels to help with clarification (fining) and then bottled without filtration.

2010 Viña Tondonia Reserva Blanco - López de Heredia are masters of Viura, a grape often viewed as having low aromatic quality and best only when transformed into sparkling wine but the magic of the Viña Tondonia vineyard lifts the grape into heights few producers can match. The complexity of this wine benefits from warming up in the glass if served too cold, the winery recomends serving temperatures of 57º to 61º F (14º-16º C). A long maturation of 6 years in older American oak barrels allows a creamy vanilla and buttery texture with hints of aged butterscotch. Dried stone fruits of apricot and nectraine from the small addition of Malvasia (10%) contrast against a wet river stone freshness. In an interview with wine importer & merchant Rare Wine Co, Maria José López de Heredia the 4th and current generation of ownership, states that their Reserva Blanco has a long history of extended aging because her great-grandfather considered wines of high alcohol to be very tasteless and unsophisticated. Extra patience was given to their white wines while in barrel to achieve the elegance he desired and today the long tradition continues.

2008 Viña Tondonia Red Reserva - Compared to the other vintages this wine has a leaner edge of red raspberry fruit and sour cherry finish that could speak to a colder growing season and chalky limestone soils providing racy acidity. Dried strawberry provides a a little roundness to the fruit profile with an oaky cedar forrest background. Since the wine is austere and crunchy I would probably enjoy sooner than later.

2007 Viña Tondonia Red Reserva - The 2007 growing season of Rioja featured spring hail and summer mildew challenges the winery had to navigate through. The reward was a wine with a richer dried blueberry and blackberry concentration. Fresh and dried strawberry fruit provides a brighter layer to the boldness with a very pleasant black tea extraction grip. The oak profile subtly weaves throughout the wine providing a range of character from cigar tobacco to spiceake.

2004 Viña Tondonia Red Reserva - The regulatory board of the Rioja wine region, Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja, lists this vintage as being excellent and the wine it represents is full of beauty. Spring frosts were absent this year aiding the transition to a high yielding harvest of high quality. The wine features an earthy and woody explosion of spiced cedar, mahogany, and cinnamon. The fruit is complex with dried cherry and black currant aromas contrasting against ripe but tart cranberry and toasty burnt sugar aromas similar to caramel. Silky and smooth, this wine has been polished to a shine with time but with all great things its true potential is still years ahead of it and I would love to try this wine again with another 20 years of aging.

1978 Viña Tondonia Red Gran Reserva - Founder Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta described his wines as “the Supreme Rioja” and its easy to see why after tasting this 46 year old wine. The fruit profile is still vibrant with bold strawberry compote along with very fresh red cherry mixed with a running stream wet stone aroma. An energizing tang of watermelon along with notes of a meaty savoriness and iodine aroma show the developed aged character this wine has been transformed by. At López de Heredia tradition is innovation, allowing wines like this to be timeless.