R. LOPEZ DE HEREDIA Rioja Tinto 'Vina Tondonia' Gran Reserva DOCa 2001 Bottle

Description

Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva 2001 is an exceptional wine, embodying the rich tradition of the Rioja region. This vintage received 98 points from The Wine Advocate and 97 points from both James Suckling and Decanter. Designated as excellent by the DOC Rioja Board, the wine benefits from a dry summer, ensuring the grapes arrived in perfect condition. Composed of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho, and 5% each of Graciano and Mazuelo, it presents a complex nose featuring sweet spices, underbrush, and ripe bramble fruit. The palate is velvety, supported by fine-grained tannins, leading to a long, sapid finish. This exquisite wine can be enjoyed now or cellared for many years, with a drinking window extending until 2040.

*****

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VINTAGE
:Year qualified as EXCELLENT by the DOC Rioja Board. The quality was extraordinary due to a very dry summer that prevented any fungal diseases. The grape arrived to the winery in perfect health conditions. We started harvesting the white grapes on Monday October the 8th and the red grapes on the 15th which is the average date for harvesting in Rioja Alta. The harvest went by with a relatively good weather and finished on October 29th lasting 21 days. The grapes showed a good maturation of the fruit and even a bit higher than the average for the Rioja Alta area, which for its altitude and north latitude has a limited cultivation mostly due to the sun influence. These wines have a great balance and will be able to age in bottle improving even more.

THE WINE ADVOCATE 98 points
Drink 2021 - 2040
The 2001 Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva is the follow-up of the 1995. There is a sense of harmony and elegance, of nuance and subtleness that wasn't quite the same in the Bosconia, as comparing both wines is inevitable. They started picking the red grapes the 15th of October, and the last grapes were picked the 29th of October with good weather. The grapes ripened properly and thoroughly, and the wine has great balance for a long aging in bottle. This is 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho and 5% each Graciano and Mazuelo that fermented in their 153-year-old oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used barrels for 10 years. It has 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.4 and 6.4 grams of acidity (tartaric). The nose shows young (tasting it blind, you'd guess a 10-year old wine, not a 20-year-old wine!). It has a nose of sweet spices, underbrush and cigar ash, somewhat balsamic, bramble fruit with perfect ripeness, integrated and young but starting to show some tertiary complexity. The palate is velvety and medium-bodied, with fine-grained, chalky tannins denoting a limestone soil that brings finesse and texture and a sapid, tasty, almost salty finish. This is going to make a beautiful bottle of old Rioja in 30 years' time! 25,000 bottles produced. It was bottled after being fined with egg whites in July 2012. - Luis Gutiérrez

JAMES SUCKLING ***** 97 Points
11 Oct, 2020 – Wow. This is really something on the nose, offering ripe plums that are highlighted with old and used leather, walnut and cedar, reminiscent of the interior of a fine vintage sports car. Full-bodied with very fine tannins and delicious, ripe fruit that continues on for minutes. Tile and dark berry at the end. Still tight and fresh for the vintage. A great wine. Drink or hold.

DECANTER 97 points
Tasted by: Sarah Jane Evans MW
(at Top 20 Rioja Gran Reserva tasting, 07 Dec 2022)
Part of Rioja gran reserva: my top 20
Drinking Window: 2023 - 2080
María José López de Heredia and her family are custodians of a remarkable way of living in the wine world, resisting the pressures to do things differently and to release their wines before their time. This remains the most Recent Gran reserva following on the from the 1995. Take time to appreciate its qualities in the glass: the youthful aspect; the medium body; the layers of red fruits and mature tannins. Nothing to suggest this is already 21 years old. It's clear that it has many majestic years ahead.