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Bottle of Lopez de Heredia Rioja Reserva Vina Tondonia 2012-Red Wine-Flatiron SF

Lopez de Heredia Rioja Reserva Vina Tondonia 2012

Red Wine from Rioja, Spain
by Lopez de Heredia
$74.99
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What is this wine?
López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Reserva 2012 is a traditional Rioja red from one of Spain’s most historic and revered bodegas, founded in 1877 in Haro. The wine comes from the famed Viña Tondonia vineyard, a 100-hectare site along the Ebro River with alluvial-clay soils. It’s a blend of about 75% Tempranillo with Garnacha, Graciano, and Mazuelo, all hand-harvested and fermented with native yeasts in old oak vats. True to the López de Heredia style, the wine was aged an extraordinary six years in American oak barrels and then several more years in bottle before release.

Why get this wine?
Few wines in the world offer such authenticity, longevity, and character at this level of craftsmanship. López de Heredia remains a bastion of old-school Rioja — patient, precise, and utterly unique. The 2012 vintage shows the estate’s signature harmony between maturity and freshness, delivering a taste of living history in every glass. It’s an essential bottle for any lover of traditional European reds.

What does this wine taste like?
Medium-bodied and complex, with aromas of dried cherry, leather, tobacco, cedar, and spice. Silky tannins and bright acidity carry a long, savory finish with hints of vanilla and forest floor.

When should you drink this wine?
Drink now through 2040. Decant gently to remove sediment. Perfect with roast lamb, grilled mushrooms, or aged Manchego.

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Left Spain

One of the many clichés employed by the wine world is the adjective “traditional”. However, there is one winery where that adjective very appropriately applies. Little about López de Heredia has changed in the more than 130 years since its founding. It occupies the same historic cellars and unlike most of their competitors, which are now owned by outside investors, López de Heredia is owned, and every detail of its operation is handled by the family who founded it.

Due to the way the industry has evolved in Rioja, most bodegas buy grapes from dozens of small growers, but not López de Heredia. They own every inch of the vineyards that supply their wines. In addition, they eschew any use of commercial yeasts and rely only natural yeasts present in their ancient cellar.

A visit to Lopez makes this all very clear. When you descend into the cellar you are met with a rush of cool air tinged with the telltale odor of penicillin. Carved out of solid rock, fifty feet underground, the cellars are at a constant 54 degrees, perfectly situated for the aging of wine and the cultivation of friendly microbes. The walls are black and wet with the occasional patch of white mold. Inside you will find 12,900 American oak barrels and 72 ancient fermenters as well as one of the worlds great collection of cobwebs.

The bodega is now in the capable hands of the family’s youngest generation—Maria José, Mercedes and Julio César. Yet, still nothing changes. In fact, these three are as philosophically committed to the winery’s traditions as their parents and grandparents were before them.

The wines are always masterful but in certain vintages can be transcendent. Lopéz labels their wines in all three rioja categories, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva. Technically almost all of their wines meet the regions criteria for Gran Reserva but as usual they do it the old ways, making Gran Reserva only in exceptional vintage.

Professional Reviews

Antonio Galloni

AG 95
"The 2012 Viña Tondonia is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano, cultivated on the meander of the Ebro River in Rioja Alta. This garnet wine reveals aromas of ash and plum marmalade, with a faintly herbal core and hints of oaky cedar. Dry and lean, the fairly chalky texture lingers long, concluding with a compact, flavorful and lasting finish. The 2012 is a beautiful old-school Rioja." -Joaquín Hidalgo

Robert Parker

RP 95
"The 2012 Viña Tondonia Reserva comes from a very dry year, with 25% less rain than the average (at the time), resulting in lower yields of very healthy grapes that delivered wines with nice balance between alcohol and polyphenols, making it very apt for the aging in barrel. It had a slightly longer élevage in barrel, six years. The wine is aromatic with a developed profile, spicy and tertiary (forest floor, a touch of brick dust and iodine), complex and nuanced. The palate is full and round, with polished tannins and a long, dry finish. It has a textbook Tondonia nose and profile. 250,000 bottles produced." -Luis Gutiérrez

Decanter

D 94
"All you can expect from a classical Viña Tondonia with its focused intensity and muscular yet very elegant tannins. At once assertive and silky, with juicy red and blue fruit gliding through the palate while being pleasantly pulled back by an energetic, iodine verve. Subtle, hovering, brooding notes of tobacco, mocha and wet forest floor. 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 10% Graciano and Mazuelo, bottled in January 2022 having matured in 225-litre American oak barrels for six years." -Ines Salpico

Details

  • Grape Variety

    Red Blend , Tempranillo

  • Vintage

    2012

  • Size

    750ml

  • Farming Practice

    Organic

  • Style

    Earthy , Fruity , Minerally

  • Sweetness

    Dry

  • Body

    Light Bodied