Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Reserva Blanco 2011

189,70 €

Year	2011
Manufacturer
Format	75 Cl
Origin	Spain
Typology	White Wine
Grape Variety	Macabeu, Malvasia
Label	Indigenous Yeast, Wood

Description
Manufacturer

Viña Tondonia Reserva Blanco 2011 – R. López de Heredia

From a warm, ripe vintage, six years in barrel and more in bottle: Viña Tondonia Reserva Blanco 2011 is a great oxidative white Rioja, round, saline and deep.

Overview

Viña Tondonia Reserva Blanco 2011 is a white Rioja made by R. López de Heredia, from 90% Viura and 10% Malvasía from the historic Tondonia vineyard. It is one of the most iconic and long-lived whites in the world, aged for around six years in American oak and further years in bottle before release. The 2011 comes from a warm, ripe vintage, which gives a more evolved, round and mellow wine than the fresh vintages, while keeping the house’s oxidative, saline style. Made in limited quantities, with around 19,000 bottles, it remains a collector’s white still able to evolve for a long time.

The story of the wine

Tondonia Blanco is the white expression of the legendary Tondonia vineyard, made the same way for over a century by the oldest winery in Haro, founded in 1877. It perfectly embodies the house’s anti-fashion philosophy: the wine is not released when the market demands it, but only when the family judges it ready, even five or ten years after the harvest. It is a white that, as the critics write, “makes demands of the taster”, far removed from the logic of immediate freshness. A bottle that tells of a way of making wine that has all but vanished.

Philosophy in the vineyard

The grapes come from the Tondonia vineyard, a shell-shaped meander on the right bank of the River Ebro, on alluvial clay soils with a high proportion of limestone. The old Viura and Malvasía vines are planted in the whitest soils and, helped by restrained yields, give the wine concentration and that unmistakable salinity. The 2011 vintage, warm and sunny, brought particularly ripe grapes to maturity, the origin of the softer, more enveloping profile of this version. The house is entirely estate-grown, meaning it vinifies only its own grapes, strictly hand-harvested.

Approach in the cellar and grape varieties

The blend is 90% Viura and 10% Malvasía Riojana. Fermentation takes place in ancient oak vats with indigenous yeasts only, followed by ageing of six years in used, neutral American oak barrels, made in the cooperage inside the winery. During this period the wine is racked twice a year and fined with fresh egg white, before a further long rest in bottle. It is the slow oxygenation in wood that builds the characteristic profile of dried fruit and spice, here enriched by the evolved notes typical of a warm vintage like 2011.

Tasting notes

Colour: bright, luminous gold, with intense golden reflections, a sign of the long oxidative ageing.

Nose: evolved and complex, on caramel, honey and dried fruit, with dried lemon peel, curry, melon and hints reminiscent of Sherry.

Palate: round, mellow and creamy, intensely saline, with an acidity that is present but less cutting than in the fresh vintages, and a long, mineral finish.

Food pairings

A gastronomic white of great structure, best served not too cold. It shines with rich, fatty fish such as sablefish and salt cod, with shellfish and paella, as well as with aged cheeses like Manchego. Its mellowness and evolved notes also make it ideal with mushroom dishes, spiced and curried preparations and flavourful cured meats.

Technical sheet

Producer: R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
Appellation: DOCa Rioja (Rioja Alta), Haro, Spain
Type: Dry white wine, traditional oxidative style
Grapes: 90% Viura, 10% Malvasía
Farming: Traditional, from old estate vines
Winemaking: Fermentation in oak vats with indigenous yeasts, six years in used American oak, racked twice a year, fined with egg white, further long rest in bottle
Alcohol: around 12.5% vol. (estimate consistent with the wine; to be confirmed on the label, warm vintage)
Serving temperature: 14–16 °C (stated indication for this wine)
Sulfites: Contains sulfites

R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia

Founded in 1877 and almost unchanged ever since, R. López de Heredia is the most stubbornly traditional winery in Rioja, where a wine is released only when it is ready, even after ten years in barrel.

The story

R. López de Heredia was born in Haro, in the heart of Rioja Alta, around 1877, when Don Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta designed and built the complex that still houses the bodega today. It is the oldest winery in Haro and one of the first three in the entire region. Its history reaches back to the mid-nineteenth century, when French négociants, their vineyards devastated by phylloxera, travelled up to Rioja in search of quality grapes: it was from them that the founder learned the art of wine. From a simple bulk wine trader, Don Rafael soon decided to control the entire chain by acquiring his own vineyards. Today the house is led by the fourth generation, with María José López de Heredia at the helm, and it is the only bodega to have received the Diploma de Garantía for the exclusive use of native Rioja grapes since its founding.

Philosophy in the vineyard

López de Heredia owns around 170 hectares of vineyards in Rioja Alta, all surrounding Haro, of which about one hundred are in active production: the rest is left fallow for up to fourteen years before replanting, a rare and almost anachronistic choice. The house is entirely estate-grown, meaning it vinifies only its own grapes, an uncommon condition in Rioja. The flagship vineyard, Viña Tondonia, acquired between 1913 and 1914, stretches over a hundred hectares in a shell-shaped meander on the right bank of the River Ebro, on alluvial and limestone soils that mark the boundary with Rioja Alavesa. Alongside Tondonia, the house farms the Bosconia, Cubillo and Gravonia vineyards, with the region’s historic grapes: Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo for the reds, Viura and Malvasía for the whites.

Approach in the cellar

In over a century, López de Heredia has changed almost nothing, and has made that its signature. Fermentations take place with indigenous yeasts, and every barrel is built and repaired in the cooperage inside the winery, one of the last still active in Rioja, which holds more than thirteen thousand American oak barrels. In the underground cellars, the moss-covered walls naturally regulate humidity, while the spider webs are left in place as allies against insects. The ageing is of an off-the-scale length: six years in barrel for the Reserva wines, up to ten years for the Gran Reserva, made only in exceptional vintages. The wines are racked twice a year, fined with fresh egg white and bottled without filtration. Above all, they reach the market only when the family judges them ready, even five or ten years after the harvest.

Style and icon wines

The result is an unmistakable style: reds and whites with an oxidative, perfumed and savoury profile, of great complexity and ageing potential, light years away from the fashions of extraction and new oak. The top of the range is Viña Tondonia Reserva and Gran Reserva, a Tempranillo-led blend, flanked by Viña Bosconia, more structured, and the younger Viña Cubillo. Among the whites stand out the legendary Viña Tondonia Blanco, from Viura and Malvasía, capable of defying decades, and the Viña Gravonia, pure Viura. But the absolute cult wine is the Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva Rosado, a rosé aged around four years in wood, a rarity unique in the world whose production resumed with the 2008 vintage after a long pause. These are bottles that have become objects of veneration among critics and collectors, because they tell of a Rioja that barely exists any more.