Bodegas Lopez de Heredia

Flying the flag for tradition in La Rioja

It might seem strange to be reading a pre-shipment offer on wine from 2004. Come again? Has a spot of accidental time travel been involved here? But no. That's how they do things at Bodegas Lopez de Heredia in La Rioja; they are unashamedly, uncompromisingly old school. In the 1990s, when other bodegas were experimenting with denser extraction and French oak, Lopez de Heredia continued to do things as they always had, looking ever more anachronistic. They haven't even gone down the route favoured by some of introducing a new, modern line-up of wines to stand beside their traditional wines. When it comes to aging, they keep their reservas in American oak well beyond what is required by law and refuse to release the wines until they believe them to be properly ready. It must drive the accountants up the wall.

But in one important way, Rioja is only just catching up with Lopez de Heredia. Most of the historic bodegas have relied on relationships with cooperatives and buying in grapes, while the cutting edge in Rioja is all about site specificity and named vineyards. Yet this is the way it has always been at Lopez de Heredia; every red they release is named after the vineyard its grapes comes from, and the flagship vineyard is Tondonia, a fine site on slopes overlooking the River Ebro.

Warm, characterful and complex, blending notes of cured meats, spice and leather with a core of smooth red fruit, and from one of the best Tempranillo vintages of recent years, this is glorious, traditional Rioja. /NT

Offered subject to remaining unsold; available June 2016