Rioja through the Decades

The sampler presented Rioja wines from the traditionalists in the 50s to present day modernists.
Following the WFW rioja tasting in the March issue where by tasters such as Jancis Robinson et al were mesmerised by the wines we were looking fwd to this.
Unfortunately our notes are not as flattering which could be that we dont like the style or the ever present elephant in the tasting room of bottle variation and quality.

For the record we rank Tondonia GR 1964 among the best wines we have tried. Also in the case of the 1991 Tondonia GR we have had from superb to undrinkable so we do tend to approach (certainly from now on) the rejion with a lot of worry as to provenance of wine. In General we will stick to buying from the producers direct were possible.

Note: The 1991 Tondonia was not part of the flight but it was in the Sample machines so we added it to the notes below.

• 1987 R. López de Heredia Rioja Blanco Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia 87 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  NOTE: You have to like the style. It benefits from decanting
  Highly oxitative, sherry like bitterness on the end. Not very fresh. Gold colour.Some honey on the nose. 87-89 depending how much value u give it for the experience of trying. We can however appreciate how some might absolutely love this

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• 1950 Berberana Rioja Gran Reserva 87 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, Rioja

  Bricking red, old school, traditional.
  Lots of coffee notes on the nose, chocholate. Quite a bit of oxidation. Wine is alive still, but thin and mild. 87 at best

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• 1958 Federico Paternina Rioja Conde de los Andes Gran Reserva 88 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  Colour shows the age. Sweet notes on the nose,more chochalte than coffee. Good amount of acidity. Some fruit. More nose than palate. 88

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• 1961 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia 86 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  Acidity, old style rioja. Some sweetness, some oak notes. Unfortunately this has a bitter acidity on the midpalate that is a bit off putting. Bottle variation?

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• 1991 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia 85 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  Another dissapointing showing from this. Om the last year we have had one great and 5 bad bottles from a variety of sources.
  Wine is a bit thin, broken and lacks life.

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• 1970 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Viña Real Gran Reserva 89 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  Powerfull for an old rioja. Strength and some tannin. Not memorable hence the small note.. 89 at best

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• 1978 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 85 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  Historic release cuvee. Interesting on paper really uninteresting in the glass at this stage though. 20yrs in barrel or so and 10 in Bottle.
  Sweet nose, reminded us of new world grenache. Lots of sweetness on the palate , oak, vanilla. Not sure if this wine is young still but at the moment the sweetnote just iron out everything. wait and hope 85

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• 1994 Bodegas Muga Rioja Torre Muga 91 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  Very dark, red. Modern, oak vanilla. Surprisingly elegant and smooth. Our favorite of the flight and so was for the rest of the group. Indeed a very nice wine.

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• 1996 Fernando Remírez de Ganuza Rioja Reserva 87 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alavesa, Rioja

  Dark red. Deep red. 90% tempranillo. Fruit fwd with a sweet core (almost too sweet). Modern, with oak notes. Very well structured but it could have been from anywhere. No typicity. Still among the favorites of the group

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• 2004 Compañía Bodeguera Valenciso Rioja Reserva 80 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  Very young, very sweet, unbalanced and no fun at all.

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• 2005 Bodegas y Viñedos del Contino Rioja Viña del Olivo 88 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alavesa, Rioja

  Purple red, very moder in style (not a bad thing at all) . Sharp fresh nose, fruit fwd and with lots of oak notes. Too YOUNG. and 88 for now but with lots of potential. Wait

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The old Riojas can vary from extraordinary to just average oldies but always make good expiriences. Shame to see the style go as the these days more and more the wineries move to modern style fruit fwd wines.
Note that in our experience the modernists such as Muga, Nieta, Numanthia , Contino although in a different style to Tondonia, can make very nice serious wines. They might sacrifice tipicity but still the wines for the price are very good.

Again, we would urge towards safety here. Bottle variation for old bottles is immense. And so is price variation too so keep an eye on wine-searcher.com