Saturday 22nd, 2012
11am - 7pm
Featuring on the machine:
1994 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Gran Reserva
(It's gentle and persistent, shockingly so...)
1995 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Bosconia Gran Reserva
(It's lighter still, earthier, gentle and persuasive...)
2001 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Reserva
(It's still evolving...)
There are lots of code words in the wine business, words that are supposed to indicate seriousness, even gravitas, words like genuine, or as the French would say, typicite’. The modern wine press is filled with others: density, power, weight, intensity, elegance, balance, hell, the list goes on. We can argue about the meaning of each. More cogently, we could argue as to whether these are words that have actual meaning or they are simply words that intended to draw attention, like marketing, like some billboard, like a celebrity endorsement, when in fact that celebrity doesn’t drink said vodka at all. But all these words are intended to mean one thing: This is important wine.
And there are as many reasons why a wine is important as there are wine reviewers. Sure. Why not? It’s personal. Each of us is looking for something that might recreate the transformative experience that some particular glass of wine gave us in the past. We seek that excitement again. And because of this, and because we have differing palates, we aren’t likely to be seeking the same wines.
But the zeitgeist sometimes appears, ghostly, to express particular notions that seem to pertain now, today, to most or at least to many wine lovers. Authenticity is one such word. Too many wines are “commercial” or “shallow” or “modern” or “international” or other such code words that stand in for “I don’t like it and neither should you.” Hmm. Critics, not surprisingly, see their own taste as an extension of their egos; the more they flaunt it, the bigger they are. Can you imagine food critics pulling the same bullshit? “Scallops are soooo yesterday. You eat those?? Omg. Lol. You need to eat geoduck, then you would be cool like me.”
But we wine writers play that sad song. We should be singing the song of the wine: What does this wine mean? What world does this wine represent (even if it’s not my world)?
Which brings us back to authenticity: if nothing else, the word is supposed to portray a wine that is grounded in a time beyond the present. There are lots of places that make wines with that sort of history, but one could do worse than look to Rioja. Do that and then ask yourself: who amongst the Riojans really represents Rioja as a traditional wine? They’re not many, perhaps only a few dozen. But amongst those, Lopez de Heredia and the two women who run that venerable 19th century producer, deserve to be top of the list.
While their wines are often lighter and softer than internationally styled wines, they have shocking longevity. With intense earth, mineral and even cellar aromas and flavors, the wines nonetheless retain vibrant fruit character. Far too many of Rioja’s great number have succumbed to New World styling; bouffants of French oak and jammy fruit are not Rioja’s legacy, a heritage nearly wiped away by the elephantine footprint of Napa Cab, Barossa Shiraz, Argentine Malbec and all the rest.
And the ladies of Lopez are not buried in the past; the winery addition they built a decade ago is one Rioja’s most modern of buildings. The wines are clean in the main, and always show preserved and even modern fruit. But the rest of the wine’s flavors and aromas are as complex as tradition could hope. Indeed, Lopez de Heredia and their bottlings: Bosconia, Tondonia and the legendary and mind-boggling Tondonia Gran Reserva, are better manifestations of history made fresh and pertinent than history itself might imagine.
Happy tasting and we'll see you Saturday!!
Cheers,
Doug Frost, MS MW
Master Sommelier & Master of Wine
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