This Amontillado Muy Viejo has more than 30 years of ageing in oak barrels giving it an intense concentration and complexity. Dry in taste with hints of cedar, leather, walnuts and a lingering, nutty finish. It is a great partner for roast beef, hearty casseroles, game or mature Cheddar cheese.
“Aromatic and intoxicating, offering toasted almonds, caramel, dried figs and coffee bean. Dense and rich yet tight and precise. Extraordinary.” IWC 2019 Gold
"The 2001 Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva is the follow-up of the 1995. There is a sense of harmony and elegance, of nuance and subtleness that wasn't quite the same in the Bosconia, as comparing both wines is inevitable. They started picking the red grapes the 15th of October, and the last grapes were picked the 29th of October with good weather. The grapes ripened properly and thoroughly, and the wine has great balance for a long aging in bottle. This is 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho and 5% each Graciano and Mazuelo that fermented in their 153-year-old oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used barrels for 10 years. It has 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.4 and 6.4 grams of acidity (tartaric).
The nose shows young (tasting it blind, you'd guess a 10-year old wine, not a 20-year-old wine!). It has a nose of sweet spices, underbrush and cigar ash, somewhat balsamic, bramble fruit with perfect ripeness, integrated and young but starting to show some tertiary complexity. The palate is velvety and medium-bodied, with fine-grained, chalky tannins denoting a limestone soil that brings finesse and texture and a sapid, tasty, almost salty finish. This is going to make a beautiful bottle of old Rioja in 30 years' time! 25,000 bottles produced. "
It was bottled after being fined with egg whites in July 2012. Drink 2021-2040.
98/100. Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate – Oct. 2020
97/100 Decanter
"Over the past decade, Bodega Hacienda López de Haro has become one of Rioja’s rising stars, a producer capable of making both consistently high-quality, high-volume brands and smaller-scale ‘artisanal’ bottlings such as this Gran Reserva Rosado. It’s a blend of 60% Viura and 40% Garnacha, macerated for 24-48 hours before fermentation in stainless steel. The wine was then matured for four years in French and Eastern European oak barriques, mostly new. It spent a further five years in bottle before release. David Williams: Complex interplay of polished wood, cherry and rosehip, and macadamia nuts, a touch of sweet green olive and fennel, baked strawberry: just fascinating. Very savoury and satisfying, with lovely glide and a silky texture. Matthew Forster MW: Brick red, attenuated colour, firm savoury oak aromas. Concentrated stewed plum fruit, with rose petal and caramel on the finish. Very complete. Diana Rollan: Intense and complex, oxidative style. Notes of dried cranberry, orange zest and sandalwood. Textured, elegant and vibrant, with a subtle saline finish. Superb."
Julia Harding on jancisrobinson.com
17.5/20
"Deep coppery pink. Aromas as dramatic as the colour: rich notes of orange-skinned plums and spiced apricots (though no impression of sweetness). A touch of dried grasses. In the mouth, this is fabulous, especially for the price. Mouth-wateringly fresh, layers and layers of flavour and just the right amount of tannic structure (more than I expected, perhaps more from the oak than from the maceration) for the wine to continue to age well, though it is delicious now. Firm, persistent and a style it is hard to find outside Rioja. Great length. A wine to savour at the table. VGV".
