This store requires javascript to be enabled for some features to work correctly.
This family-owned winery makes highly individual wines in a style essentially unchanged since its inception in 1877. They grow all their grapes using organic methods, ferment using only natural yeasts and do not filter their wines. They employ four full-time coopers to make their barrels.
- Winemaker: Mercedes López de Heredia
- Farming: Organic
- Variety: 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho, 5% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo
- Terroir: Cubillo single vineyard.
- Vinification: Hand-harvested, destemmed, spontaneous yeast fermentation in large, neutral oak vats, then racked into Bordeaux barrels to finish ML.
- Aging :3 years, being racked twice per year and fined with fresh egg whites.
- Tasting Note: Light fresh texture with notes of vanilla and dried berry aromas, sweet fruit and lead pencil notes dominate this wine, whose brightness and liveliness promise decades of potential. Rich, very dry, smooth, developed. Firm tannins, balanced.
Scores: 94, James Suckling: An earthy, well-aged Rioja with complex aromas of dried oranges, savory dried plums, mushrooms, tobacco and wet leaves. Distinctively zesty with bright, citrusy fruit on the medium-bodied palate, rounded by firm, juicy tannins. Quite a long, outstanding entry-level red from this traditional producer. Very drinkable now, but will also hold.
--
Gravonia, Tondonia, Bosconia and Cubillo are all individual vineyards which have been in the family for generations. Patience is a family watchword, as this bodega thinks nothing of waiting twenty years before releasing a wine. Their “Crianzas” are aged like others’ “Reservas” and “Gran Reservas”; the “Reservas” as long as others’ top “Gran Reservas”. And the ultimate accolade of “Gran Reserva” is accorded to only the very greatest vintages. Rarely are there more than three of these in a decade. These are uniquely traditional Riojas of massive, boundary-crossing repute. Both red and white are capable of staggering longevity.