Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Saturday, December 16, 2017 - Served blind, but immediately recognizable as R. López de Heredia style. 12,5% alcohol.

Medium deep golden yellow color with faint lime-green highlights. Very burly, brooding and somewhat oxidative nose with unctuous aromas of browned butter, cream, toasty developed character, some spicy wildhoney, a little bit of vanilla and a hint of white cheese rind. The wine feels medium-bodied, even a bit thin and quite acid-driven on the palate with complex and intense flavors of browned butter, some creaminess, a little bit of sharp lemony fruit, light vanilla character, a hint of sorrel and tangy salinity and a touch of Granny Smith apple. Contrasting the rather heavy, oxidative character, the wine is quite light and refreshing with high acidity. The finish is lively and acid-driven with flavors of tangy salinity, lemon wedges, some tast green apple, a little bit of cream, a hint of toasty and buttery developed character and a touch of smoke.

A very fine, light-bodied and delicate old-school Rioja white with terrific brightness and elegance. 2002 was a really lousy vintage in most parts of Europe and you can see it here as well: the wine is lacking the unctuous richness typical of Tondonia Reserva. This lack of power made many people guess this was Viña Gravonia (as practically everybody agreed this must be a Heredia white), but I guessed (correctly) that this is more likely a cooler-vintage Tondonia. Very nice stuff, although really different from the typical Tondonia style - the lack of weight and body actually benefited the wine, making it feel more refreshing and brighter than Tondonias normally are. This is definitely not going to be as long-lived as most of the other Tondonia vintages - I'd say the wine is getting close to its plateau of maturity and will keep some more years after that, perhaps a decade, tops. As the fruit feels somewhat thin, there isn't much to develop, even though the high acidity would otherwise promise good potential. Still nice stuff, as Tondonia (and Heredia) almost always is.

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