Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Reserva Rioja 2005 – 750ml Redneck Wine Company

96pts James Suckling

A staggering range of aromas, from dried mango and papaya through toasted nuts to dried flowers. Powerful and concentrated, but not at all fat, this has a stunning texture, due to the interplay of tannins and richness. Very long, intense finish. 

94pts Decanter

Classically ‘old-fashioned’ Rioja that has stuck to its 1877 roots. Fine natural warmth and smooth, slightly nutty flavours, lots of controlled energy and a firm finish. A really lovely wine. 

94pts Vinous

Vibrant, spice-tinged red currant and cherry aromas are complemented by suggestions of pipe tobacco, vanilla and incense, and a spicy nuance gains volume with air. Sweet and seamless on the palate, offering energetic red fruit and spicecake flavors that pick up a hint of smokiness on the back half. Concentrated yet lively, showing impressive delineation and a sexy floral quality on the extremely long, seamless finish. While this wine is quite seductive right now, I’ve little doubt that it will cruise along nicely for at least another decade or more, and probably quite a bit longer. 

93pts John Gilman

The 2005 Viña Tondonia Reserva from López de Heredia is a beautiful example of classical Rioja, with the developing aromatic and flavor complexity of a thirteen year-old wine that is, in reality, just beginning its vinous journey. The bouquet is pure, old school and stellar, jumping from the glass in a mix of black cherries, raspberries, Rioja spices, a refined base of soil elements, incipient notes of cigar smoke, fresh nutmeg and a lovely bass-line of coconutty, old American oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and already nicely velvety on the attack, with a fine core, lovely soil signature, modest tannins and a long, tangy and still fairly primary finish. This is very easy to drink already, but will be so much better with another five to ten years’ worth of bottle age. A very fine example of why one does not have to focus exclusively on Gran Reservas to get the best of Rioja! 

93pts Rpbert 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. 

90pts 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. 

Jancis Robinson

Lovely, glowing, mature deep ruby. Orange rim. Heady and complex – the most complex wine in The Bunch tasting by a mile! So fresh and layered and appetizing. Seems silly to even write this but it could only be Rioja! So pure!!!! Dry finish but there is enough fruit here. 18/20 points.

Winemaker Notes

#9 wine in VinePair’s Top 50 of 2018

Brilliant ruby with light tiled trim. Very fine nose, fresh, toasted with light aromas of vanilla. Very persistent. On the palate it is very dry, soft, round and developed.

This wine accompanies both hot salads with quail or bird, flakes, foie 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