I had this from a list in Spain last week. Said it was a “gran riserva”; nothing on the label says it is one, as far as I can tell. (Apparently a special bottling for a well-known distributor at the time, “Casa Armendariz.”) Was it common to mark them as such at this epoch? (Online I have found a few images with “riserva” for later dates, and there is one from the 50’s, Poulaner imports, marked “gran riserva,” but that may have been for the US market.)
I don’t think there was any deception involved in any case, but I am curious. The wine was not as interesting or profound as I had hoped, but that might also have been storage. (Seemed a touch madeirized among other things.)
Thanks in advance for any clarification you can offer.
If you Google “lopez heredia 1962 Gilman”, you’ll find a publicly available PDF of a writeup from Gilman about RLdH, with tasting notes on a bunch of older vintages [ http://www.lopezdeheredia.com/noticias/View.pdf ]. Includes the 1962 Tondonia. The title of his tasting note indicates GR, but the first sentence then inidicates it is neither Reserva of GR (excerpt of relevant portion shown below):
“1962 Vina Tondonia Rioja Gran Reserva - Lopez de Heredia
This is simply the regular bottling of Tondonia (neither Reserva or Gran Reserva), and yet the wine is drinking beautifully at thirty-three years of age…”
As for it being a bit maderized, that’s characteristic of LdH, of very old wines, and maybe of that vintage, which the authorities rated muy bueno but which wasn’t in the same league as 64 and a few others. Interesting find though.
To be honest, I did not look so closely at the capsule; it was at a restaurant. Definitely will next time. Have you had the '62? Was it a Gran Riserva? Not clear from what Gilman said that there was one made.
I had a friend who had gone to LdH with a similar question about a '70 Tondonia, which had a Crianza designation on the neck label along with the seal of guarantee. The response was that the old seals of guarantee didn’t differentiate between Crianza, Reserva, or GR. This started in '81 as noted. Before that, they were all considered Crianza if they had been aged in barrel, though some could be multi-vintage blends and subject to 3, 5, or 6 (Tondonia) years of aging (so at different levels according to the modern designation). I believe that any of the wines with the vintage designated in big letters on the front are, by today’s terms, Gran Reserva and were released to the market with a minimum 17 years of reserving (I’m paraphrasing the response from LdH but I think this is correct). So, yes, this is effectively a GR by the modern (post-1981) designation.
I’m assuming that if there were a vintage from the 50s, that was labeled/released post-1981 (which certainly wouldn’t have been out-of-line, particularly with all the bottles RWC imported in the mid-2000s), it might have the GR designation on the label. Not sure how this reconciles with my friend’s 1970 (not RWC) which almost certainly would have been released post-1981, but I don’t get the nuance of the law either (e.g., was old stock grandfathered while some importers may have specifically wanted the GR for marketing purposes).
Interestingly, I had a similar question regarding some 1959 La Rioja Alta 890 I bought, as well as some 1973 904 and asked the estate… you’ll note that before 1981 the designation on all these was Reserva, versus Gran Reserva today when they were all held according to the modern definition and all are, in effect, GR.
I have some 1925 Murrieta Ygay I just looked at, bottled in 1953. Clearly it meets any modern (at least barrel aging) definition for GR. It says “Reserva Especial”. More interesting is a 1942, bottled in 1981 (apparently the important year). It still says “Reserva Especial”, so I guess this was just bottled before the law, but I’m not sure when it was actually released. Modern vintages are all “Gran Reserva Especial”.
Very illuminating; very helpful. I actually did write to the estate, but have heard nothing back (yet). What you say seems largely to clear it up. (If I hear back from them, however, I will post further.)
