Parker 94 More rustic and powerful than Tondonia. Easily Gran Reserva standard. Tertiary and developed, super-classy. Suckling 94: "rich and silky...plums, cedar and autumn leaves"
Another ready-to-drink classic from this revered estate. Parkers Wine Advocate 96/100 "...unusual finesse and elegance... nuanced and complex... has to be one of the finest vintages (of this wine) of recent years"
Graciano is one of the key components of Rioja wines, but rarely is it seen bottled as a single variety. Rich and intense, with floral, violet, and red cherry aromas, and a deep chocolatey finish.
Very good Rioja that offers superb value. One year in a mixture of French and American oak barrels, adds texture and flavour to the tempranillo dominant blend from one of Rioja's most consistent producers.
Lopez de Haro Tempranillo is pure young Tempranillo: strawberries, raspberries, flowers and red licorice notes. A pleasure to drink slightly chilled with charcuterie. Refreshing and a real bargain.
Fruity aromas enveloped by noble woods, with hints of vanilla and toast. Suggestive, enveloping and polished. Palate: It fills the mouth without aggressiveness, smooth and round. Ready to drink, although it can be saved some years.
Classical blend of 85% Tempranillo, 10% Mazuelo and 5% Graciano. Deep crimson. Lovely, lots of earth, grainy and rich and very very racy. Refined and polished
Iconic pink released at ten years age. Incredibly rare and sought-after, we have only 30 bottles. Eccentric and beguiling, one of the most unusual wines you'll ever taste. Sold out around the world.
Decanter 96
The first vintage to be vinified partly in new winery, and also the first vintage to be made entirely by winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga de Juan (at Vega Sicilia also)... this is similar to the 2010, so a rich style of wine, concentrated with white pepper spice, but also juicy and gourmet and extremely enjoyable. This is too young right now, still needs a few years in bottle but it is a great wine with energy and freshness, and brilliantly showcases what Macán is becoming.
Parker 93+
...5% of the barrels were produced with American oak at the Vega Sicilia cooperage. The new winery was 100% ready and now has much better facilities. The élevage lasted 12 months, and this has contained ripeness and integrated oak. The year had freshness and balance and helped to produce lighter and more expressive wines, like this one. This has to be one of the finest vintages for this cuvée.
Navajas is a family-run estate, situated outside the small town of Navarrete in La Rioja Alta. Antonio Navajas makes quintessential Rioja - soft, round and oaky. This is a superb example of a crianza combining ripe, sweet fruit with vanillin scented oak.
Hacienda Lopez de Haro continues to rack up awards for being one of the best quality best value Rioja brands, and this Crianza is its flagship. It's a no brainer delicious wine with lovely pure flavours and 18 months ageing in French and American oak barrels.
Ripe red fruits combine with interwoven oak to give touches of spice, cherries and a hint of licquorice. A beautifully elegant, lasting finish. 12 months in French oak & 6 months in American oak
Tim Atkin 97/100
Tondonia's reds have been on an upward curve recently and are now at the same level as the bodega's world-class whites. This is a fine, elegant, savoury, low-alcohol blend of Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and 5% each of Mazuelo and Graciano, combining summer berry fruit, racy acidity, granular tannins and an earthy, balsamic undertone. Good now, but this will develop further in bottle. 2020-28
Tim Atkin MW (January 2020)
Splendidly evolved, orange/brick red, almost-pinot-like delicacy with a hot-earth rusticity and nutmeg spice. Highly drinkable, stunning value.
Tim Atkin 93/100 "Cubillo is a later-picked site with more clay in the soil and tends to produce the lightest, freshest and most elegant of the López de Heredia reds. Floral, refined and delicately wooded, this is sweet, delicate and almost Pinot Noir-like in terms of its flavors and tannin structure."
1995 was an excellent and early harvest, the grapes achieved full ripeness and were harvested under the sun during two weeks starting October 9. The wine, which exceptionally achieved 13% alcohol, is the usual blend, 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho, 5% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo (Cariñena). Like all their wines, it fermented with indigenous yeasts in old oak vats and as a Gran Reserva it matured in old American oak barrels for ten years! Yes, it was bottled in November 2006 and launched in 2015, a full 20 years after the harvest. This light-colored, ethereal 1995 is the essence of Viña Tondonia. It has developed aromas and complexity gained with the time in bottle, of incense, leather, cured meat, cherries in liqueur, cold bonfire and spices. The palate is super-tasty, with fully-resolved tannins and very good acidity. The texture is super-fine, sophisticated and ethereal with gob-smacking balance. Intense, powerful and elegant, too. Hard to believe, but this red feels too young and while approachable, I'd wait a couple of years or more because it will be much better. The profile follows the style of the great classics of the 1950s and 60s. Bottles like this are the ones that created the López de Heredia myth. This could be lighter than the 1994, but in the long run I believe the 1995 will be the better bottle.
Tim Atkin 96
The Bosconia vineyard, which has always been vinified separately at the winery, has more clay in the soil and tends to produce richer, plumper wines that are priced below Tondonia. This cuvée of Tempranillo with 10% Garnacha and 5% each of Graciano and Mazuelo has caressing sweetness, supple tannins and notes of dill and tobacco. 2019-28
James Suckling 95
A stunning vintage of this Rioja classic. Ripe and concentrated, yet cool and delicate with tons of fine tannin. Lots of earthy, autumnal Burgundy-like nuances, as well as notes of violets and plums. Long, complete finish. Drink or hold.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 93
2006 was a hard year to follow, even if 2007 was a great year in Rioja and exceptional for López de Heredia. The 2007 Viña Bosconia Reserva shows a little tannic, fulfilling the reputation for being a more rustic wine than Viña Tondonia. There are notes of chocolate-covered cherries and hints of forest floor...
Plentiful aromas with sweet notes, chamomile and secondary aromas of peach, citrus and tropical fruits. All assembled in perfect harmony with the creamy notes and spices from the oak barrels.
Mid-deep ruby. Ripe, red-cherry fruit, with beautifully layered clove and cedar oak spice notes. Lovely integration of oak and fruit. Well crafted, though there’s a good backbone of fine tannins that will carry it through for a decade from now.
Elegant and round. It is well balanced with a velvety attack followed by a pleasant acidity and a silky and full-bodied aftertaste resulting from its noble and ripe tannin. Its long aftertaste has spicy and balsamic hints, resulting from its long and peaceful ageing, as well as confit fruit nuances that uncover its personality.
90% Tempranillo, 5% Graciano and 5% Garnacha from Rioja, Spain. The wine spends 20 months in a combination of French and American oak barrels. Inviting aromas of ripe black cherry, nice vanilla notes and a touch of balsamic. The wine tastes smooth and round in the mouth with lots of tart black cherry fruit, sweet spice notes, licorice and more vanilla.
Fermented in steel and aged for 2 months in French oak It has lovely floral and citrus fruit notes on the nose, more on the palate and thirst quenching acidity. Really pleasing to drink on its own or with creamy dishes.
A small family-run bodega near the village of Navarrete, in the heart of Rioja D.O.C., making wines of great integrity and some finesse. It was founded in 1918 and is today run by Antonio Navajas and his wife. This is a big favourite of many of our customers and on a 'value for money' basis it is not hard to understand why.
This is Rioja at its precocious youthful best, with intense raspberry and black cherry fruit overlayed with a flourish of vanilla and coconut from 4 months in American oak. It is beautifully balanced with medium weight and cushioned by fine grain tannins." Ted Sandbach
"Dense notes of macerated strawberries are followed seamlessly by those oh-so-glorious classic Tondonia notes of autumn bonfires and vanilla. But the 2008’s aromas move seamlessly into more delicate, almost ethereal layers of astonishing complexity – with dried cranberries, evolving into sweet, fresh raspberries. A blend of 70% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacho, with the remaining 10% a mix of Graciano and Mazuelo, the palate is surprisingly tight with lots of super-fine tannins. Initially ultra-fresh, the wine mellows with air, transforming into a gentle and glorious wine with savoury hints of marmite and cured meat, spiralling away into an endless finish. Warm, delicious, elegant and exhilarating, this is more in line with the cool 2006 than other recent vintages. A wine worthy of any cellar."
Catriona Felstead MW
A small family-run bodega near the village of Navarrete, in the heart of Rioja D.O.C., making wines of great integrity and some finesse. It was founded in 1918 and is today run by Antonio Navajas and his wife. This is a big favourite of many of our customers and on a 'value for money' basis it is not hard to understand why.
