1954 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia

Community Tasting Notes (26) Avg Score: 94 points

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  7/1/2022 - ThijsV Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Dinner at Restaurant 273 (Oudegracht, Utrecht): Cork soaked, fill level mid shoulder. But the bottle is very much alive! It even develops over the evening, becoming rounder and softer. Of course tertiary note of leather, truffle, dried cherries, forest leaves, dried red currant, soy sauce. Lovely wine and what an experience to drink such an old wine (especially as it was from an auction with unknown provenance)

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  4/10/2022 - ekessler wrote: flawed

  fully madeirized. another bottle of fine sherry!

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  12/13/2021 - lozatron Likes this wine:

  Lazy Sunday Lunch (La Trompette): What a treat - a real piece of history. At this stage - everything about the experience is worthy of comment. The label didn’t say Gran Reserva, nor did it say Reserva - who knows what the definitions were back then? The bottle had a deeper punt than I expected on something so old - and was made from this blueish green glass. The wine - a bit muted maybe? Some sour cherry - still vibrant, still good acid balance not “old old wine” - and didn’t fall apart in the glass.

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  11/29/2021 - G_H wrote: 87 Points

  This was a bit disappointing given the pedigree of the vintage and winery. From a bottle with a near perfect fill, this had some nice notes of porcini, red berries but was light in style and somehow metallic. I was hoping for more.

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  11/29/2021 - Cailles wrote: 89 Points

  11x Mature Rioja (1928-1999): Three Tondonia Grand Reservas tasted side by side. All three showed impressively that the Tondonias can age gracefully for decades. They all showed surprisingly fresh and with lots of fruit with probably a bit more tertiary aromas missing for the best possible harmony and complexity. To the wines: True to the vintage hierarchy, this was a clear win for the 1970 (rated 94+ pts) which delivered a convincing performance with lots of fresh fruit, good complexity, high precision, fine structure with lots of tension. I’m convinced that this could have achieved a 95-97 pts rating If I would have been able to follow it over one or the other hour. The 1980 (rated 92 pts) showed the same freshness and also a lot of fruit but it is a touch too ripe and lost a bit of its tension towards the finish and with some time. The 1954 (rated 89 pts) was did not have fully clean lines and was missing a bit of substance.
  
  TN: Medium- expressive nose displaying dark fruits, leather and earthy notes but also some alcohol heat. On the palate this shows the same aromas but not as much tertiary aromas as hoped. It still has a good tension and nice creaminess but overall it doesn’t have enough weight and gets thinner towards the finish. It is missing substance and precision. The nice creamy and round structure, the weightlessness of the wine are not enough to make up for it. 89/90 pts.

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