2010 R. López de Heredia Rioja Rosado Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia

The 2010 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva was hitting on all cylinders. It was produced with 60% Garnacho (they use the masculine of the name here), 30% Tempranillo and 10% white Viura from vines averaging 91 years of age. Like all the wines, it fermented with indigenous yeasts (they have never used selected yeasts) in the 142 oak vats they have used since the beginning and then matured in old American oak barrels for four years. There is tons of complexity and nuance here; it's super elegant and layered, and as the wine sat in the glass, it developed more and more complex aromas, a subtle combination of balsam, red acid berries, a hint of medicine, fennel and wet chalk, a diesel-like touch, old wood and mushroom (beetroot?), licorice and yellow flowers, sweet spices... There's a lot more of everything. It's clean and crystalline, fresh and long, with terrific balance and depth. This has to be the finest rosado of recent times... 25,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2016.

Special, aged rosé with dried strawberry, leather and Spanish cedar on the nose. It’s full-bodied with beautiful fruit and a vanilla, light toffee and dried-fruit finish. Nutty at the end. Unique wine. Drink now.

Copper-tinted orange color. A wild, expansive bouquet displays an array of red fruit and floral qualities, along with hints of baking spices, vanilla, orange pith and toasted nuts. Stains the palate with gently sweet strawberry, tangerine, hazelnut pastry and candied rose flavors that are firmed by a spine of juicy acidity. Shows excellent depth as well as energy and finishes extremely long and silky, with resonating florality and a sappy red berry quality..