R. Lopez de Heredia Rioja Vina Tondonia Reserva (1.5 Liter Magnum) 2005
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Winemaker Notes
This wine accompanies both hot salads with quail or bird, flakes, foi gras with reduced raspberry jam, as with lamb roasts and suckling pig. In general, pair this wine with anything as it is a very versatile wine.Blend: 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho (notice the masculine use of Garnacha), 5% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Traditional Rioja at its ageworthy best, the Tondonia red is a cuvee of Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and 5% each of Graciano and Mazuelo. Leafy, gamey and sweet, with tangy acidity and a volatile lift.
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James Suckling
Lovely depth of fruit to this mature red with chocolate, dark tea and bark. Purple flowers and violets. Full and very silky and refined. A beautiful traditional wine to get to know.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Viña Tondonia Reserva is a blend of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho, 5% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo from their vineyards in the meander of the Ebro River, where they have some 100 hectares of vineyards. The wine fermented in the original oak vats that are now some 140 years of age. There is no temperature control and malolactic was also in the vat. The wine was transferred to oak barrels where it slowly matured in their deep, humid caves for no less than six years. After this, it was bottled unfiltered after being fined with egg whites. I think the quality gap between the Reserva and Gran Reserva has been getting smaller since the 2001 vintage and this 2005 is nothing short of exceptional. It's clean and complex, with more freshness. The wine is very spicy and with a palate that feels very balanced, livelier than in the past. It has a long finish where the flavors are clean. Easy to drink and very pleasurable.
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Wine & Spirits
Work your way past the bittersweet-chocolate notes of oak and scents of dill and paprika, and you’ll find some freshness and richness to complement this wine’s maturity. Tondonia Reserva offers elegance rather than intensity or power, an aristocratic take on old-line Rioja.
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It all started in the middle of the nineteenth century when French negociants visited the Rioja region to find alternative sources of quality grapes to transform into wine, since the phylloxera epidemic had decimated their vineyards. Our founder, Don Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta, a knowledgeable and enthusiastic student in the art of wine making, followed closely in their footsteps.
Don Rafael fell in love with the region and especially the area around Haro, the mythical capital of the Rioja Alta region. He observed that there was a magical combination of soil and climate that would offer the perfect environment for producing wine that would eventually become world famous. Around 1877 he began the design and construction of the complex that is today known as the López de Heredia bodega (winery), the oldest in Haro and one of the first three houses in the Rioja region.
For over a century our emotions have been rooted in our love and passion for this land and its harvest. We cherish our heritage, and this combination of love and the rigorous quality standards we apply, have become our trademark and remains our maxim for today and the future.
Bodegas López de Heredia stands out as one of the few family-run bodegas regulated by the Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja - DOC (Appellation region).
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.