Red Wines

wines

Savory berries, plums, iron, minerals, tobacco, ink and blood oranges. Very bright, juicy and structured, with sensational balance, aged savoriness and brightness that are typical of Tondonia reds. Beautiful now.James Suckling | 96 JSThe 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.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RPAll 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.Decanter Magazine | 94 DECThe 2012 “Viña Tondonia” Reserva from López de Heredia has just been released. The wine is crafted this year from the same cépages as was the case with the lovely 2011 version, which I reported on in the last issue: seventy percent tempranillo, twenty percent garnacha and ten percent from a mix of mazuelo and graciano. The wine spent six years in older American oak barrels of two hundred-twenty-five liter capacity prior to bottling. The wine is nicely classic in its octane in this vintage, coming in at an even thirteen percent and offering up a complex bouquet of red and black raspberries, spiced meats, cigar wrapper, salty soil tones, clove-like Rioja spices, woodsmoke and a bit of spicy oak. On the palate the wine is vibrant, full-bodied, focused and still quite youthful at twelve years of age, with a lovely core of fruit, excellent soil signature and grip, ripe, well-integrated tannins and a long, well balanced and complex finish. This is certainly approachable, but my inclination would be to bury it away in the cellar for another five to ten years, let its tannins properly fall away and really enjoy the fireworks! (Drink between 2024 - 2075)John Gilman | 93+ JG

Dark black cherry in color, this wine has a nose of Chambord, dark chocolate and violet. It is smooth at first sip, with notes of chocolate and coffee that fill the palate and are quickly joined by clove, black plum and cassis flavors.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEBrooding depth with excellent complexity. There’s an attractive umami touch along with notes of dried black mushrooms, dark spices, pine cones, dark chocolate, focused blackberries and dark cherries. It has a full body and fine-veined tannins. Juicy, fleshy and long, but still quite reserved. An exemplary, well-rounded Rioja gran reserva that’s already approachable, but will improve in the next four to eight years.James Suckling | 94 JS

Granito is an exciting new wine from one of the key figures in the renaissance of Garnacha in Riojoa, aged in two different containers made from the eponymous rock. Stony, fine and complex, it marries raspberry and red cherry flavours with fine tannins and a mineral core. 2023-30Tim Atkin | 95 TA

This is the fourth vintage of Sandra Bravo’s brilliant old-vine Garnacha from Rivas de Tereso and it’s every bit as good as its predecessors. Aged in 300-litre clay amphoras, it’s wonderfully perfumed and intense, with engaging bramble and red cherry fruit sweetness, tannins and a long, energetic palate. 2023-32Tim Atkin | 96 TA