2010 R. Lopez de Heredia - Vina Tondonia Vina Gravonia

Full bottle 1,266 g. 100% Viura. The producer notes: ‘On that year it rained very little in comparison to a normal average year. June was very cold and as a consequence the budding as well as the fecundation were affected reducing the quantity all over Rioja in general and in our vineyards in particular. Harvest started 27 September with white grapes and 4 October with reds. It lasted until 20 October.’ A cold Rioja vintage. Aged four years in barrel, racked twice a year, fined with fresh egg whites. Unfiltered. TA 6.5 g/l. 14,500 bottles. Nutty, cedary, typically oxidative style that this wine is famous for. The tertiary aromas are hard to describe – bitter orange, barley sugar (a type of hard candy), hay – all are in there. On the palate, very good acidity, particularly for this style of wine, and a wild/sour intensity that has notes of beeswax, linseed, non-sweet honey, more cedar. So full of flavour, it fills the mouth even at only 12.5% alcohol. Long, integrated oak-spicy and utterly mouth-watering. Chewy texture as if there were some tannins in here, maybe from the oak? Complex and long. Even though the oxidative character is already marked, no reason to think it won't continue to age well in bottle, given the chance. Bitter orange on the lingering aftertaste. A wine to spend the evening with. (JH)