1998 López de Heredia Rosado Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia

1998 López de Heredia Rioja Rosado Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia

I was lucky enough to spend half a day with María José López de Heredia earlier this year at her family winery in Haro, Rioja….it was one of the highlights of my time in Spain for several reasons. For starters,  María José is an amazing person to chat and spend some time with……the intensity and passion for the tradition and history of her families estate burst from her every word. From trying the wines and showing me around the mind-boggling estate, to leaning on the wall below the winery overlooking the Ebro river and chatting about the contemporary Spanish wine scene, she was fascinating to talk to…..plus we went to her favourite tapas bar for lunch which was an added bonus.

Secondly….the wines just blew me away. López de Heredia is one of the last bastions of traditional winemaking in Rioja….never straying from their path as the playing field changed around them….there is truth in a glass of López de Heredia wine….truth, history, passion and tradition….unswayed by the pressures of marketplace and fashion….and that I just love.

The wines are as old school as they come….not everyones cup of tea….sure…..but they are one of the wine worlds great treasures and we should thank them for that.

The 1998 Gran Reserva Roasado is a blend of 60% Garnacho, 30% Tempranillo and 10% Viura and spends four and a half years in old oak, before being fined lightly with egg whites and bottled, unfiltered for a further rest in the estates cellars. The wine is only released when the López de Heredia family deem it ready to drink

A beautiful dark onion skin hue in the glass, the wine shows captivating aromas of blood orange and redcurrant fruits with hints of mandarin rind, walnut, candied ginger and light sherry-like notes along with faint wafts of dried apricots, polished leather and dusty, old oak nuances.

Very focused and energetic on the palate but quite linear….give this one a good decant and don’t serve it to cold or it will coil up like a spring and seem a touch austere….plenty of air, let it warm up and become comfortable in its own skin and it transforms.

Tangy and savoury with redcurrant and blood orange…the wine aches with minerality…almost crystalline. Plenty of supporting complexity in the way of toffeed citrus peel, walnuts and almonds, dried honey, spice, a touch of toast and misty, old oak characters disguised as vapour trails of mahogany and leather. A piercing line of acidity wraps it all up as the layers of complex flavours fade lingeringly to just a memory on the back palate.

The longer you leave it in the glass the more you see…..anise, jamon, tangerine, dill, coconut, oloroso and so on……you end up with a shopping list of descriptors at the end of it but that is not the point…..this is a truly fascinating wine….a polarising wine but a fascinating wine….my drinking companions tried my glass, gave me some weird Hunter .S. Thomson crazy eyes and reached for the NZ Sauvignon Blanc.

Me….I happily worked my way through the bottle solo….doing my own crazy eyes as it morphed in the glass…..I was a very enchanted, happy wine geek.

Vina Tondonia Rosado Crazy Eyes