Rioja's ultra-traditonalists strike back
Every so often, reference vintages come along. I've seen 2010 Riojas from a variety of bodegas go through the system. They have been superb, and sold out quickly. 2010 was an excellent vintage, easily the best since 2001. Winter provided (just) enough rain to see the growing season through, then warm and dry spring weather meant good flowering and no disease pressure. In August there was a weird alternation between cool and very hot days. While that is in no way my personal experience of Spanish summers, it provided ideal conditions for grapes to develop ripeness in tandem with freshness, energy and acidity. The Rioja Control Board drily notes the possibility that 2010 may become regarded as 'one of Rioja's historic vintages'.
Most bodegas have long since seen their 2010s out the door. But arch traditionalists Lopez de Heredia are not 'most bodegas'. They insist on keeping their wines for a long combination of barrel and bottle aging before they consider them ready. They take great pride in making their wines - and especially the flagship Tondonia - to the same recipe they have been using since the bodega was founded in the 1870s.
2010 Tondonia is unusually intense, but it very much has the classic Tondonia profile on show: black and red fruit, jamón, leather, vanilla and nutmeg. It is still coiled and grippy, surprisingly young for a 12-year-old wine, with a long future ahead. /NT
Offered subject to remaining unsold; for shipment late Spring 2022
