TN: 2009 R. López de Heredia Rioja Rosado Viña Tondonia

  • 2009 R. López de Heredia Rioja Rosado Viña Tondonia - Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja (5/12/2019)
    I can’t think of the last time I have had so much anticipation of a rose, and with good reason as this truly was a singular experience. Lots of notes on CT describe ‘paint thinner or ‘petrol’ which is indeed accurate, but by no means off putting, nor was it as oxidative as I had thought it would have been. Instead, this was exceed lying fresh, spry even, with a textural richness from the use of oak. My normal tool box of TN words simply break down here, as I can’t really describe this other than it had my 100% full attention and that I loved it. Don’t hesitate if you can find this for the proper release price $35-$50 though a head scratcher as to secondary market prices in terms of paying $250 for a rose, but simple supply and demand I get it. Outstanding.

Posted from CellarTracker

Interesting note, my friend. Curious as to what temperature you served this at - and if it was chilled, how it changed and evolved as it got closer to room temperature?

Certainly a ‘singular’ wine indeed - and one that’s difficult to ‘directly compare’ to others.

Cheers.

Hi Larry,

I don’t have a specific temp for you other than it was well within the range of my normal white and did seem to develop as it warmed. Certainly a decant might have helped, certainly wouldn’t have harmed it, that’s for sure.

Nice work sourcing one Dale. How would you describe the color of the wine? Hard to tell from your pic, but it looks a bit more cherry red than previous vintages, which I’d describe as closer to salmon or orangish even.

the color is a golden orange with no oxidative notes

  • 1 to the color post, really unique hue of orange for a table wine.

I still have two. Unsure if I should sell them or just drink them or trade them

Have you tried it yet Chris? At the very least give one bottle a go, like it or not, this really worth your time given the unique make up of this puppy.

.I can’t think of the last time I have had so much anticipation of a rose

I can think of 2008.
But you are spot on in your post.

Is it that expensive?

Both 2008 and 2009 have been selling at auction for $250-300 per.

I’ve never had the rose. Didn’t even know. Great note and I will hope to have the experience sometime in the future.

A bientot,

Mike

Just got a bottle for $40. Pretty excited to try it. Wonder if I should let it age though?

Yes, you should.

I want to try this one!

Drink and hold.

Anybody with thoughts on why this would be in the $250 range here.

I’ve tasted different vintages during a few visits at the winery and, while I think they are good wines, and I recall that they were selling them for mid Euro 30s. Irrational speculation?

It’s really weird. But LdH has attracted a lot more fans over the last decade (I remember when a prominent Spanish wine expert derided those few of us who were making a fuss about the wines as a cult) and they went 8 years without a release of the Rosado so all those people never had a chance to try it.

I was also looking forward to the new release but having tried multiple vintages from the '90s I had zero incentive to pay the prices being asked.

Just down to demand I imagine - they don’t make a lot of it. I think their entire production is something like 25.000 cases and the rosado (like the blanco gran reserva) is just a tiny fraction of that.

Ed: they make about 1000 cases of the Rosado, so comparable with a bunch of other so-called cult wines.

It ages so slowly that unless you got a bunch of them you might as well drink it now. I’ve got a few cases and plan to drink a few bottles this summer, then forget about the rest til the 50s. They really do benefit from extended ageing but that’s a long time to wait to give it a go;-)

Saying that, if you really like it you may of course have to pay a lot more for the next bottle(s) - I’ve just that the last few bottles on winebid sold for $387 and $369… Could just wait for the 2010 I guess.