Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Intense nose of cedar, dark cherries, earth, tile and mushrooms. Fine-grained tannins bring focus, with balance and nerve. Structured, with flesh and good length.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As with many wines this time, I had two vintages to taste of the Reserva from the Tondonia vineyard, 2009 and 2008, two very different, almost opposite vintages. The 2009 Viña Tondonia Reserva, a blend of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho and 5% each Mazuelo and Graciano, matured in used American oak barrels for six years. It has some toasted character, with ripe fruit, black rather than red, denoting a warm year but more restrained than the Bosconia Reserva from the same vintage. 2009 is a year of ripeness, concentration and tannin; the wines are powerful, but here you see the finesse of Tondonia in comparison to the more rustic Viña Bosconia. 220,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2017.
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Wine & Spirits
From the López de Heredia family’s prime vineyard on a meander of the Ebro just outside of Haro, Tondonia is a blend of tempranillo with 20 percent garnacha along with small amounts of graciano and mazuelo. It’s a little volatile when first released from its long rest in bottle, then it turns silken and mouthwatering with air, a bright, lively and refreshing take on traditional Rioja. Brisk cherry and delicate orange zest notes make this an easy pleasure, fully mature with ample tannins to carry it further, equally at home with a plate of hake cheeks or a rabbit stew.
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Wine Spectator
The deep, rusty color announces that this is not a typical rosé. Distinctive, offering tangy acidity and light, firm tannins that frame the rich texture, giving this plenty of structure for food. Orange peel, tarragon, iodine and beeswax notes frame the dried cherry and tangerine flavors. Unique. Garnacho, Tempranillo and Viura. Drink now through 2029. 1,166 cases made.
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.