2005 R. López de Heredia Rioja Reserva Viña Bosconia- Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja (1/18/2018)
PnP in a burg glass about 2 hours prior to dinner & slow oxed. Quick first sips & aromas, fantastic! No need to decant if you pour out a couple glasses and let everything slow ox. Semi translucent ruby red color with nearly opaque center. Aroma’s of berries, underbrush, orange peel, faint leather and spice. The palate offers up weightless flavors of raspberry, strawberry, underbrush, faint hint of leather, more orange peel that becomes more pronounced an hour in and mineral. Minor dusty tannins on the finish standalone but totally smooth with food. Overall impression is an authentic wine with wonderful balance, depth, concentration but weightless elegance and a unique expression of terroir. For me, hands down, the single best wine coming out Spain year in year out. In a way Burgundian and yet unmistakably tempranillo that can only comes from Rioja. 13.5% Alc. One of the top 20 wine values in the world IMO and available nearly any where for sub $40. If this wine was from Burgundy or BDX it would be at least twice the price. (93 pts.)
I coravined a small pour few nights back. I found with American oak very prominent, but after 2 hours in the glass, I assumed, it would be gorgeous.
Craig, as you mentioned the underlying balance between fruit, secondary flavors and elegance was all there. Weightless elegance indeed, well said. Remarkable wine at a great value from one the best wineries in the world!
The note makes it sound as if 2005 is fresher, more elegant, and more transparent than the 2004 Bosconia Reserva. (I haven’t had the 2005.). Is that the impression folks have?
Nice notes. I love Bosconia in all releases and although this is a youngster, it has all of the making to evolve into another gem. I also found the oak to be more prominent at this stage, but as with the others, it integrates nicely and the wine balances out.
Oh I don’t miss an LdH release. Love the blanco as well. I just have or drank wines from my cellar that were purchased 15 years ago, that in hindsight I wish were LdH. The 1976 GR Bosconia is probably a top 50 all time wine for me.
Jason, have you ever tasted the '81 GR Bosconia? If not, you definitely should try to find one. As good as the '76 is – the '81 is still the best Bosconia I’ve tasted.
I’m down to my last few bottles of each of them. Will definitely be wines that I’ll be keeping in mind for very special occasions.
I’m thinking I’ll set aside some of this regular reserva for long term aging. Seems to me like it has the structure and material to age for at least another 5-10yrs minimum. I haven’t had the 04 for a couple years but oddly I found it less compelling in my memory than this 05. That said I have another 04 cued up to try again soon.
The note makes it sound as if 2005 is fresher, more elegant, and more transparent than the 2004 Bosconia Reserva. (I haven’t had the 2005.). Is that the impression folks have?
The 2005 was a better vintage. The 2004s tend to be quite closed. There’s some idea that they’ll come around in time, and perhaps they will, but in the region I almost always prefer the 2005s, which are a lot more approachable. Never found much point to decanting those though. They’re not like a lot of other wines. They’re so oxidized to begin with that popping and pouring seems to work just fine.
That’s consistent with my recent experience with those vintages - for both the Bosconia and the Tondonia Reservas. Just opened the first of my '05 Tondonias recently - and it was the most open & expressive “young” vintage that I’ve tried in a number of years.
On the other hand, I think the '04s will have a long life ahead of them. I was able to get a good deal on a closeout of the '04 Tondonia, and I’m going to put those away for a while (almost like I would for the GRs).
We did a visit to RLdH a few years ago, and had the pleasure of a long tour of the bodega and Tondonia vineyard with Maria-Jose. During the visit, I asked her that question. She said that she doesn’t decant any of their wines, and doesn’t recommend it. She believes they show best by just opening and pouring - and letting them evolve over the course of a meal/evening. Given that she has a couple more orders of magnitude experience with tasting their wines than I ever will, I go with her advice…
I had both '76 and '81 a few times. Still sitting on a few of them in the offsite storage. For me, without question, '76 > '81, at this point. Besides, I think '81 still needs more cellar time.
I heard that Maria-Jose has some new innovations for cooling her cellars during vinification. They are now opening the shutters so ventilation can reduce temperatures.
Thats very interesting…its hard for me to get past the nose even though the palate is quite remarkable…I thought decanting would help make it more approachable…
I tasted 2002, 2004 and 2005 next to each other and I prefer 2004 over 2005 (you can check my tasting notes from CT on Mar 25th, 2017).
2005 felt more fruit-forward and approachable, but also rounder and sweeter when tasted side-by-side. I enjoyed the higher acidity and more savory qualities of 2004 more, but only by a notch - both are terrific vintages.
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