López de Heredia ‘Viña Tondonia’ Reserva 2011

95 POINTS: James Suckling
95 POINTS: Tim Atkin MW
94 POINTS: Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate

“A traditional beauty that effuses iron, warm earth and savory tobacco leaves, together with plums, spices and orange zest. This is juicy and still tight, with firm but savory tannins. Medium-weight and quite zesty in texture, as is the case with the other López de Heredia reds tasted this session. Drink now or hold.”
- James Suckling

“The 2011 Viña Tondonia Reserva is darker and shows riper fruit, a rounder palate and some dusty tannins. A year of ripeness, concentration and tannin, the wine is powerful with the finesse of Tondonia. Tasting this next to the textbook 2010 Tondonia revealed how this has more muscle and a wider back and the 2010 epitomizes the finesse and elegance. 270,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2019. 2022-2029.”
- Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate

López de Heredia is “one of the last great bastions of Rioja tradition” (Hugh Johnson). As Luis Gutiérrez writes on erobertparker.com, “visiting the winery is like time travelling to 100 years ago, with no stainless steel or new oak to be found anywhere”. All their wines are named after different plots on the estate. From a year of "powerful, concentrated wines of good quality" (Jancis Robinson), Tondonia Reserva comprises mainly Tempranillo, plus portions of Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo, all aged for six years in barrels, then bottled unfiltered for maximum flavour. It’s a wine of great complexity with a savoury aroma of spice, leather, intense berry and cigar box. The palate is remarkably fresh and long. Decant early and savour slowly.