TN: 2009 R. Lopez Heredia Rose - Vina Tondonia

Wow. This is a crazy wine, and wildly different than any rose that I’ve ever had before (in a good way). In fact, if I tasted this blind and blindfolded so that I couldn’t see the color, I don’t know what I’d be guessing, but probably not rose. Speaking of color, this has to be one of the prettiest looking wines I’ve ever seen. Kinda like a bright/fluorescent orangish, reddish, salmon with a tinge of peach. Picture melting together an Orange, Red, yellow, and peach Jolly Rancher. On the nose, this is nice, but not overly expressive, and certainly not the strongest feature of the wine. More earthy type notes with some slight strawberry, and a tiny hint of oxidation. In the mouth, unlike their blancs (and the nose), there is really no oxidation at all. It’s incredibly fresh (especially given it’s a 10 year old rose) and literally bursting with flavors. Really hard to pin down as there’s a LOT going on, but I’m getting strawberries, freshly picked raspberries, earth, damp leaves and leather, which are all blending together seamlessly with a generous amount of acidity creating a unique and incredibly satisfying mix of bright fruit and savory notes, which all end with a very long and mineral driven finish that lasts upwards of 45 seconds. Refreshing and contemplative at the same time. A very serious wine, and a monumental effort. The hype is real.


[media] Rich Brown on Instagram: "2009 R. Lopez Heredia Rose - Vina Tondonia Wow.  This is a crazy wine, and wildly different than any rose that I’ve ever had before (in a good way). In fact, if I tasted this blind and blindfolded so that I couldn’t see the color, I don’t know what I’d be guessing, but probably not rose.  Speaking of color, this has to be one of the prettiest looking wines I’ve ever seen.  Kinda like a bright/fluorescent orangish, reddish, salmon with a tinge of peach.  Picture melting together an Orange, Red, yellow, and peach Jolly Rancher.  On the nose, this is nice, but not overly expressive, and certainly not the strongest feature of the wine.  More earthy type notes with some slight strawberry, and a tiny hint of oxidation.  In the mouth, unlike their blancs (and the nose), there is really no oxidation at all.  It’s incredibly fresh (especially given it’s a 10 year old rose) and literally bursting with flavors.  Really hard to pin down as there’s a LOT going on, but I’m getting strawberries, freshly picked raspberries, earth, damp leaves and leather, which are all mixing together seamlessly with a generous amount of acidity creating a unique and incredibly satisfying mix of bright fruit and savory notes, which all end with a very long and mineral driven finish that lasts upwards of 45 seconds.  Refreshing and contemplative at the same time.  A very serious wine, and a monumental effort.  The hype is real." [/media]

Where is the photo of the wine?

Swipe left on the pic

Forgot about that, thanks.

Hard to capture the full effect of the color in a pic…but at least gives you an idea.

Wish I could find a bottle for a decent price. Only local shop with it wants $135. Looks lovely though!

Yep, i wish it was cheaper for sure, but this was the first time seeing it here locally in AZ so I had to grab a few. Definitely glad I did - really good/unique wine, and easily the best rose I’ve ever had.

Just ordered my 6 pack for $50CAD/$38USD. Gotta rub it in as we usually get awful pricing here.

Question: what temp do people recommend drinking this at? I think most would drink their whites around cellar temp or slightly above. Same for this?

Wow! Screaming deal - congrats! Let’s just say I, unfortunately, paid a little more than that!

And this was my first go at the rose but it was great at cellar temp, as well as when it warmed up some in the glass when additional flavors started to emerge.

Nice notes, but 25 followers!!!.. C’MON MAN!!!

Ha ha! Admittedly super weak!! Historically havent really been on Instagram but starting to get into it a little more.

Shooting for at least 30 followers by EOY

May I ask where you found this? My entire state (TX) gets a case of this per year, I’m told

I have always loved this wine. The problem was finding it stateside. I have 3 bottles in my cellar, 1 a 97 and the other 2 the 2000. The 2000 was the last vintage before the 08 and 09. Seems weird having back to back vintages after a gap of 8 years. Problem now is price-unbelievable for a rose. Years ago I paid in the 40’s and that seemed like a lot. Just spent a few days in Montreal, and I should have looked for some there.

Wait, people actually drink this wine?!? I thought it had become some sort of commodity. I do think it’s a really nice and interesting wine…for the regular retail price of $30-$40. I suspect the hype will die out eventually and we’ll be able to find it for that again, once in a while. I can understand people who have never tried it being willing to pay more for the experience. Personally, I far prefer their reds, and those are easy to find at standard markups.

Nice looking cellar.

Well, I’m just an “n=1” sample, but heck yeah I drink these. Used to drink them all the time back when they were more readily available in distribution. Even as recently as the first couple years of this decade, you could find the 2000 vintage sitting there collecting dust on the shelves of any decent wine shop in the Seattle area (or, if not, they could easily order some from Cavatappi). Back then, when I found out about the long vintage gap (which, if my memory is correct, was a function of a string of vintages where the varieties they co-ferment to make the Rosado - both red and white - didn’t ripen in the way they wanted), I did my best to “hoover up” any remaining bottles I could find around here. Since then, I’ve been rationing. Down to almost my last mixed 1/2 case of 95, 97, 98, and 00 vintages. Had to chuckle a bit when CT showed me that I paid less than $25/bottle for all of them.

For now, I’m just biding my time hoping that, once a few vintages cycle through distribution, the mania will dissipate and these will be back to interesting wines that appeal to old-school Rioja tastes. Though I’m sure that even then prices will be a good bit higher than they were “back in the day”. The 2008 was available here locally at $35/bottle (which I think is still pretty reasonable), but on a strict allocation system (all I could score was 2 bottles). I expect the same for the 2009 vintage.

Michael

Thanks man!

Our local Ontario importer. Everything must be sold in full cases when bought directly from importers here by law or else I’m sure they would have been allocating it by the bottle. I guess I was just in the right place at the right time to scoop up the case. Goes without saying but you need to be a resident of Ontario to buy.

Do they have any left Chris? It’s John Hanna right?

Emailed you.