When you open a bottle like that, you need to be prepared for everything and not being ambitious... we opened this one on a casual lunch and behaved like a real star after 73 years... it was tremendously fresh and very hard to tell the age... I could not believe it was a 47 with such a freshness... everything you wish from a Lopez de Heredia was there... it presents a very dark and deep color, round and harmonious in mouth.. do not decant, we open and let it breath in glass for 1 to 2 hours while talking and eating... it never fade out but if you don't like this wine, no worries, sell the rest to me! Cheers to the best producer ever for classic Riojas!
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This bottle was a lovely gift from a very kind client, thanks Irving! A fine example of a mature Rioja Gran Reserva. The color was an outstanding clear ruby. The group made a decision to open and pour based on the bottles age. The bouquet was light, but the there were aromas of beef blood, leather and truffle. I picked up the metallic on my tongue immediately, but a rose petal and mild cocoa flavor was present. This wines high acidity has allowed for its ability to age so gracefully. EG
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With the lads at Houstons. Fill was about shoulder. Color was absolutely amazing. Brambly, fruity nose. Some faded fruit on the palate, but satisfying. Good acidity that provided some brightness. Never faded over the 5 hours this was open. If anything, was brighter by the end of the evening when the last drop was consumed.
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Funky and smokey with notes of cured meat, truffles, fennel, Asian spices and dried currants. Bold on the attack, but the wine fades away on the finish. This wine will surely have its fans, and while I found it interesting to drink, do not count me as one of them.
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A nice garnet color in the glass with slight bricking at the edge. The nose was very fine, not explosive but ethereal and somehow deep, with notes of cigar tobacco, leather, red fruit, rust, and mushroom. In the mouth, this is among the silkiest wines I’ve encountered and bright with red fruit and even a little tannin and cacao. Very nice.
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Unfreakin believable. This wine is immortal. Glorious aged rioja nose with all the concentration and vigor of something one third its age. Wonderful balance and velvety structure while still showing some tannic muscle. When I got home, the empty glass still smelled intoxicating.
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Opened for my dad's 60th birthday. If there are any other members of the '47 vintage out there, let me encourage you to do some comparison shopping of this wine vs., say, '47 Cheval Blanc, and then put on your thinking cap. This is also apropos for the occasion because it will firmly establish that things born in 1947 needn't be old or decrepit -- the color is a deep dark red with bricked edges but no orange or amber; it tastes more youthful than some more recent Bosconias such as the '81, '76, and '68 and kept improving until it was all gone four or five hours after the cork popped.
As always with Bosconia, this wine has a suppleness and smoothness to it that's finer than silk or cashmere or any other fabric you might use as an analogy and is completely weightless on the palate. In contrast to a young wine where you might praise the "stuffing," the remarkable thing here is the utter lack of physical stuffing, as though all that flavor were delivered to you incorporeally. Some of it wafts into your gums like cigar smoke and it tastes intensely of sweet tobacco with a savoriness that I wasn't prepared for, an almost salty shitake-mushroom-broth quality mixed with beef blood and iron, fattened up by a core of ripe fruitiness that still hasn't faded. There is even a bit of tannin left that gives this wine more muscle than is typical for Bosconia.
The contrast with the '68, which is equally memorable in a different way, is interesting. The '68 has even more finesse and is more seamless in its amalgamation of flavors and scents. The '47 is bigger, more powerful. But the '68 is at its peak. I'm not sure this one is. Anyone opening this wine for a birthday this year should consider putting away another for the next "big decade" or two.
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Opened to sip for a birthday toast and then to drink alongside the 1964 Tondonia, paired with two dishes, crab cakes and steamed Maine lobster. In the glass the wine appears light garnet, a little dull in color but not bricking. The nose was everything hoped for, dark cherries and strawberries, smoke tobacco, dried herbs, and earth, growing more complex as the minutes press on with notes of wet leather and night blooming flowers. In the mouth, the wine was silky and light with a nice lift of acidity under the cherry fruit and delicate composition of classic Rioja flavors and the finish persistent. All in, a very nice mature Rioja.
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The oldest Bosconia I have ever had, and the most beautiful. Recently released from the bodega, this bottle was purchased from PJ’s in Manhattan and was in perfect condition. Color was difficult to discern, as we drank this outside by candlelight, but the nose was redolent of classic old Rioja aromas—cherry confit, almond and fresh, damp and spicy pipe tobacco. After a lot of swirling, the nose starts to show a bit of barnyard in the background. On the palate the wine astonishes us with its brightness. No one can believe this wine is 60 years old (that is, until I show them the 96 Bosconia afterwards for sake of comparison, which everyone finds to be dark, rich and brooding). Jill says it tastes like Burgundy, which is a high complement in Jill’s book (and mine). By that I think she means the lift the wine gets from its acidity coupled with the soft smooth and velvety impression the wine makes on the palate, because even though the wine is bright and light on its feet owing to its acidity, there is a deep concentration to the red fruit notes in the wine that are themselves seemingly at once fresh and at the same time complex and evolved. Like the Huet described below, this Bosconia was a wine that was both immediately delicious and invited extended contemplation. What’s amazing is that in view of this wine’s elegant balance of fruit and structure, there is no danger of this wine going downhill any time soon and I would bet dollars to doughnuts that a properly stored bottle will be as good or better in another twenty years.
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8/13/2020 - AR Chambertin 1996 wrote: 97 Points
When you open a bottle like that, you need to be prepared for everything and not being ambitious... we opened this one on a casual lunch and behaved like a real star after 73 years... it was tremendously fresh and very hard to tell the age... I could not believe it was a 47 with such a freshness... everything you wish from a Lopez de Heredia was there... it presents a very dark and deep color, round and harmonious in mouth.. do not decant, we open and let it breath in glass for 1 to 2 hours while talking and eating... it never fade out but if you don't like this wine, no worries, sell the rest to me! Cheers to the best producer ever for classic Riojas!
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1/15/2020 - blanquito wrote:
FLAWED, fully maderized.
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5/23/2011 - Rupert wrote:
Dinner with López de Heredia wines 1934-1976 (Cambio de Tercio, London SW5): Sharp and volatile, spicy blackcurrant fruit with lots of bite - wild, but fantastic
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12/17/2009 - WineArchitect wrote: 91 Points
This bottle was a lovely gift from a very kind client, thanks Irving! A fine example of a mature Rioja Gran Reserva. The color was an outstanding clear ruby. The group made a decision to open and pour based on the bottles age. The bouquet was light, but the there were aromas of beef blood, leather and truffle. I picked up the metallic on my tongue immediately, but a rose petal and mild cocoa flavor was present. This wines high acidity has allowed for its ability to age so gracefully. EG
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12/24/2008 - Colima74 wrote: 89 Points
With the lads at Houstons. Fill was about shoulder. Color was absolutely amazing. Brambly, fruity nose. Some faded fruit on the palate, but satisfying. Good acidity that provided some brightness. Never faded over the 5 hours this was open. If anything, was brighter by the end of the evening when the last drop was consumed.
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12/23/2008 - Paul Lin wrote: 85 Points
Funky and smokey with notes of cured meat, truffles, fennel, Asian spices and dried currants. Bold on the attack, but the wine fades away on the finish. This wine will surely have its fans, and while I found it interesting to drink, do not count me as one of them.
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5/23/2008 - Totatalitarian wrote:
A nice garnet color in the glass with slight bricking at the edge. The nose was very fine, not explosive but ethereal and somehow deep, with notes of cigar tobacco, leather, red fruit, rust, and mushroom. In the mouth, this is among the silkiest wines I’ve encountered and bright with red fruit and even a little tannin and cacao. Very nice.
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12/26/2007 - jackarmando wrote: 96 Points
Deliciously aged beauty. Old style Rioja with new style body. It's impressively retained a rich, deep color, and luscious fruits.
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8/2/2007 - BillB656 wrote:
Unfreakin believable. This wine is immortal. Glorious aged rioja nose with all the concentration and vigor of something one third its age. Wonderful balance and velvety structure while still showing some tannic muscle. When I got home, the empty glass still smelled intoxicating.
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7/3/2007 - Keith Levenberg wrote: 100 Points
Opened for my dad's 60th birthday. If there are any other members of the '47 vintage out there, let me encourage you to do some comparison shopping of this wine vs., say, '47 Cheval Blanc, and then put on your thinking cap. This is also apropos for the occasion because it will firmly establish that things born in 1947 needn't be old or decrepit -- the color is a deep dark red with bricked edges but no orange or amber; it tastes more youthful than some more recent Bosconias such as the '81, '76, and '68 and kept improving until it was all gone four or five hours after the cork popped.
As always with Bosconia, this wine has a suppleness and smoothness to it that's finer than silk or cashmere or any other fabric you might use as an analogy and is completely weightless on the palate. In contrast to a young wine where you might praise the "stuffing," the remarkable thing here is the utter lack of physical stuffing, as though all that flavor were delivered to you incorporeally. Some of it wafts into your gums like cigar smoke and it tastes intensely of sweet tobacco with a savoriness that I wasn't prepared for, an almost salty shitake-mushroom-broth quality mixed with beef blood and iron, fattened up by a core of ripe fruitiness that still hasn't faded. There is even a bit of tannin left that gives this wine more muscle than is typical for Bosconia.
The contrast with the '68, which is equally memorable in a different way, is interesting. The '68 has even more finesse and is more seamless in its amalgamation of flavors and scents. The '47 is bigger, more powerful. But the '68 is at its peak. I'm not sure this one is. Anyone opening this wine for a birthday this year should consider putting away another for the next "big decade" or two.
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6/4/2007 - Totatalitarian wrote:
Opened to sip for a birthday toast and then to drink alongside the 1964 Tondonia, paired with two dishes, crab cakes and steamed Maine lobster. In the glass the wine appears light garnet, a little dull in color but not bricking. The nose was everything hoped for, dark cherries and strawberries, smoke tobacco, dried herbs, and earth, growing more complex as the minutes press on with notes of wet leather and night blooming flowers. In the mouth, the wine was silky and light with a nice lift of acidity under the cherry fruit and delicate composition of classic Rioja flavors and the finish persistent. All in, a very nice mature Rioja.
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1/12/2007 - MartyL wrote:
The oldest Bosconia I have ever had, and the most beautiful. Recently released from the bodega, this bottle was purchased from PJ’s in Manhattan and was in perfect condition. Color was difficult to discern, as we drank this outside by candlelight, but the nose was redolent of classic old Rioja aromas—cherry confit, almond and fresh, damp and spicy pipe tobacco. After a lot of swirling, the nose starts to show a bit of barnyard in the background. On the palate the wine astonishes us with its brightness. No one can believe this wine is 60 years old (that is, until I show them the 96 Bosconia afterwards for sake of comparison, which everyone finds to be dark, rich and brooding). Jill says it tastes like Burgundy, which is a high complement in Jill’s book (and mine). By that I think she means the lift the wine gets from its acidity coupled with the soft smooth and velvety impression the wine makes on the palate, because even though the wine is bright and light on its feet owing to its acidity, there is a deep concentration to the red fruit notes in the wine that are themselves seemingly at once fresh and at the same time complex and evolved. Like the Huet described below, this Bosconia was a wine that was both immediately delicious and invited extended contemplation. What’s amazing is that in view of this wine’s elegant balance of fruit and structure, there is no danger of this wine going downhill any time soon and I would bet dollars to doughnuts that a properly stored bottle will be as good or better in another twenty years.
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