1961 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia

Community Tasting Notes (26) Avg Score: 92.2 points

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  11/24/2022 - drwine2001 wrote:

  Thanksgiving 2022 (Los Gatos, California): Same bottle as noted by EKessler below. Deep color for its age, a shade darker than a 1996 Grand Cru Burgundy drunk alongside it. Peppery, herbal, black fruit nose. Elegant medium weight. Similar flavors with all elements well meshed but not yet completely resolved. I got the sense that a bottle in this condition could still improve and sweeten with more time-amazing!!

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  11/24/2022 - ekessler wrote:

  Amazing, excellent wine. Similar experience to that of AQUACONGAS. PNP. Cork soft/wet all through and even lost a bit into the bottle using Durand. Dark (for a Roija), minimal bricking. Sublime. One of the rare old bottles of Rioja without any funk.

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  5/23/2021 - fclarity wrote: 94 Points

  Tasted blind, this wine had a light red center and tawny rims. Right behind the medium intensity notes of plum, cola, black spices, and vanilla was some reduction and TCA.
  
  In the mouth, this wine was medium bodied with light tannin, solid acidity, and very good length.
  
  I would guess this bottle was about average after factoring out some of the impact of TCA in my score. I believe the issues with this bottle were not due to storage but due to production process problems. Thus, this wine will likely have a unusually high level of variability among bottles (91-97).

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  5/15/2021 - Grinner wrote: 91 Points

  Hedonism and Refinement at 60!; 5/14/2021-5/15/2021 (Joe and Kyla's Bar and Grill): Again, I would've been very happy if everything this night was this good! No sediment, as expected, this wine was "past brick" in color, someone said! Very mature nose with dried cherries, minerals, spice, dried tobacco, smoke and cedar. Better w/ food, than sipping.

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  5/15/2021 - jkwoodward Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Lyon 2021 Birthday Bash; 5/14/2021-5/15/2021 (Bear Creek Woodward/Lyon Den): Birth year wine for my buddy Mark, with many other '61's, this struggled to stand up to the rest. Still good in its own right, notes of tobacco but slightly muted compared to the others. May be bottle variation, but the others just sung. Wouldn't kick it out of be for eating crackers though...

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View all 26 Community Tasting Notes

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