A couple weeks ago we had the pleasure to open all of these amazing wines with our clients at a sold out intimate dinner with the importer and myself guiding everybody through the Wines.
For many people, it was their first time having the rosado and blanco wines and for most guests it was the first time having wine as old as a 1954!
All of these wines except the 2009 Rosado Gran Reserva and the 1954 Tondonia Reserva are current releases. So that would be the 2004 Gran Reserva Tondonia tinto and blanco, 2012 Tondonia Reserva tinto, 2013 Tondonia Reserva Blanco, 2014 Bosconia, 2016 Grovania, 2017 Cubillo.
Each wine showed incredibly well. The 2014 Bosconia was the wine of the night for the current release Reserva reds (12 Tondonia and 17 Cubillo). The whites in general need many more years in a cellar. They showed incredible potential, and each evolved in the glass a lot. I personally prefer the white wines with at least 10 more years on them. If you open any of these Blanco now decant them for a couple hours minimum⊠This also includes the Tondonia Gran Reservas, both 2004 red and white need a cellar to be lost in. BUT if you had to drink one now, I would give it probably a day of slow-oxing in the bottle or open it and recork it and then check on it the next day a few hours before you want to have it and then maybe decant at least an hour or two more. But that is just a suggestion based on experience with wine like this. They might still not come around fully this young (this is why we age wine people!)
Lastly, the 1954 Tondonia Reserva was incredible! It was everybodyâs wine of the evening by far. It was magical in that it definitely tasted younger than what I wouldâve expected and many other people expected something old and dilute and tired. It was none of those things. It was concentrated, but elegant, it had energy, and it grew in the glass. It makes me wanna buy a case of this and Bosconia every year and forget about them!
I just purchased a bottle of '54 Tondonia Reserva from a friend who is a major Rioja collector. Birth year wine for me. He also sold me a bottle each of '54 CVNE Imperial Gran Reserva and '54 CVNE Viña Real Reserva Especial. That friend goes to Europe to source wines and sells them to friends for the price he paid. Heâs not ITB.
Very cool, if itâs a sound bottle you should be very happy with it! Thanks Larry and woudl be great to knwo more, thatmakes sense though if they did not use GR til later.
Ours was about the same fill level. It was purchased at the winery, and then held by one owner for 30-ish years until they sold it to us earlier this year.
Iâll be tasting there in five days.
First tasted the wines and started selling them in 1980, when I worked for a retailer.
My boss was a French wine lover. After my first year, he asked me âwhy was our second best selling wine last year Spanish?â I answered âtaste itâ.
Really looking forward to this visit. Prices are ~10x what they were 45 years ago so I donât buy as often as I used to. But that is my first of only 3 wine visits on a two week trip and I hope to buy a case or more to share with other winegrowers and friends. I donât check luggage, so I wonât be bringing any back with me
Maybe I should make an exception and check a bag???
One of my best experiences with Spanish wines is actually the 1954 - purchased in a small wine store in the middle of San Sebastian, more as a souvenir - and expectations were limited. It blew them away, regal stuff.
At a party yesterday, a friend brought '54 LdH Bosconia Reserva. Fill was not great. Sadly, it was DOA.
He then opened '54 Marques de Murrieta Reserva. It took some time to open up. Initially, it was thin and simple. An hour of air definitely helped. It fleshed out and was more complex. However, I would say it was good, but not compelling. I had that same wine for my 70th birthday dinner last year and that bottle was stellar.
Indeed. They started labelling the 6 anos as Reserva in 1981. My understanding is that previously to this, these were also more or less single vintage; you can deduce which one from the printed number on the side of the label. The rules allow you to include 15% previous vintages and from what I understand, the practice before and after â81 was more or less the same.
(Iâve also had the â54 Tondonia a few times and itâs a fantastic wine - the â54 Bosconia is also superb. Will have to try them side-by-side!)
They started with the 1982 vintage when the Rioja DO started making changes to thair internal statutes. I think it was standardization of the crianza, reserva, gran reserva classification.
Only the best vintages would have the year on the label, those would be the current Gran Reservas. Kind of misleading if you look at the old labels of Tondonia since it would say vino de crianza, not to be mistaken with the Crianza classification but rather it just means âaged wineâ.
The 6to año for Tondonia and 5to año for Bosconia was used since the blend was more important to keep consistency. They still add about 15% from the previous vintage for their Reservas, and its totally acceptable in the Rioja statutes.
The way to figure out the vintage on these old bottles is to look for the lot code on the front label. Itâll say something like GG 1/77 which makes the base vintage 1970 for Tondonia since it was bottled in early 1977.
