{"title":"Rebel Rioja FARWELL 09.17.26","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"e19","title":"Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Reserva Red","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eA Quiet Conversation With The Dead — And The Greatest Rioja I've Tasted In Years\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eMaría José López de Heredia runs one of Spain's most revered wine estates. She is the fourth generation of her family to do so, and she has a habit that I find, depending on your disposition, either slightly \u003cem\u003elouche\u003c\/em\u003e or deeply moving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eShe talks to her ancestors every day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eNot metaphorically. Not in the abstract sense that all great winemakers honor their predecessors. Literally — a quiet daily conversation with her great-grandfather Don Rafael, her grandfather, her father — the three generations of López de Heredias who built, brick by barrel by bottle, one of the most extraordinary wine estates in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\"I do speak to them every day,\" she told \u003cem\u003eWine Spectator,\u003c\/em\u003e with the casual certainty of someone for whom this requires no further explanation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eHaving tasted the 2012 Viña Tondonia Reserva, I understand completely. These are wines that make you believe the dead are still present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eDon Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta founded the bodega in 1877 in the town of Haro, in Rioja Alta — one of the first three bodegas in the entire Rioja region, established when phylloxera was destroying French vineyards and the world's wine trade was being remade from scratch. Don Rafael fell in love with the combination of limestone soils, Atlantic climate and the great sweeping bend of the Ebro River, and he built something that has, in the nearly 150 years since, changed almost not at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe cellars are carved 200 meters into natural sandstone, ten meters deep, housing 12,900 barrels at any given time. The family operates its own cooperage — their coopers repair and maintain barrels in-house, sourcing new wood from the Appalachian Mountains of America and aging it for two years in Spain before it ever touches wine. The wines ferment with indigenous yeasts. Malolactic fermentation happens spontaneously. And the wines age in those old American oak barrels — six years for the Reserva, a decade or more for the Gran Reservas — until the family, and only the family, decides they are ready.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eWhich is why, while the rest of Rioja is releasing their 2022s and 2023s, López de Heredia is only now sharing their 2012 Reserva with the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThis is not stubbornness. This is not \u003cem\u003efustian\u003c\/em\u003e traditionalism for its own sake. This is a family that has spent nearly 150 years understanding something the modern wine trade has largely forgotten: that great wine is not finished when fermentation stops. It is barely begun. And patience — genuine, unhurried, generational patience — is not a marketing strategy. It is simply how these wines have always been made.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe Viña Tondonia vineyard itself is one of Spain's most beautiful pieces of agricultural land — a sweeping, shell-shaped depression on the right bank of the Ebro, planted in alluvial clay over limestone, cooled by Atlantic breezes that allow Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo to ripen slowly, building complexity without surrendering acidity. The vines' roots reach thirty meters into the earth in search of water and minerals. You can taste those thirty meters in the glass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe 2012 Reserva unfolds slowly — and I mean that as the highest compliment. It opens quietly, like an old library door, and what lies beyond is dried cherries, wild strawberries, orange peel, cedar, tobacco leaf, leather, dried rose petals, black tea, forest floor and a delicate balsamic spice that has no modern equivalent in wine. The palate is \u003cem\u003epellucid\u003c\/em\u003e and silky — bright red fruits still vibrant after a decade, carried by fresh acidity and tannins so fine they are felt rather than tasted, fading into a finish of dried herbs, mineral earth and the ghost of American oak so thoroughly integrated it has become part of the wine's identity rather than an imposition upon it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThis is Rioja as it existed before richness and extraction became virtues. A wine of nuance, restraint and effortless complexity — it inspires and rewards your careful attention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOutside the ancient bodega in Haro, there is a pavilion designed by Zaha Hadid — the late, great architect of swooping, futurist curves — commissioned for the winery's 125th anniversary. It is, by every measure, one of the most beautiful small buildings in Spain. And it sits in magnificent, \u003cem\u003eraffish\u003c\/em\u003e incongruity next to one of the most unchanged wine operations on earth, as if to say: we know exactly what we are, and we are comfortable enough in that knowledge to find it amusing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eI find it rather wonderful.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003ePour this with roast lamb, grilled mushrooms, duck breast, Jamón Ibérico or aged Manchego. Or simply open it on a quiet evening and let María José's daily conversation with her ancestors wash over you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe 2012 is drinking beautifully now and will continue to evolve gracefully for another two decades. There is no urgency. There never is, with López de Heredia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vino Veritas","offers":[{"title":"750 ml","offer_id":44449157316841,"sku":"","price":69.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"375ml","offer_id":47905278460137,"sku":"","price":37.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"1.5 L","offer_id":46505795518697,"sku":"","price":199.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/products\/image_8854a70b-2171-412b-86b3-0967bd909765.png?v=1631719016"},{"product_id":"g14","title":"Remelluri Gran Reserva Rioja 2014","description":"","brand":"Vino Veritas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45102125187305,"sku":"","price":124.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/products\/image_82f90da6-9040-46b2-bd65-2b5fa0ddff18.png?v=1631804745"},{"product_id":"avinyo-petillant-2020","title":"Avinyo Petillant","description":"","brand":"Vino Veritas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44652478431465,"sku":"","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/products\/image_742df8d1-dad4-47a9-809a-4845acb4ae33.png?v=1633118175"},{"product_id":"la-rioja-alta-vina-alberdi","title":"La Rioja Alta Vina Alberdi Seleccion Especial Reserva 2021","description":"","brand":"Winebow","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43521468399849,"sku":"30343231","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/files\/IMG-3922.png?v=1788205886"},{"product_id":"conde-de-hervias-trinidad","title":"Conde de Hervias Trinidad","description":"","brand":"Vino Veritas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44329942614249,"sku":"413C","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"miguel-merino-la-loma","title":"Miguel Merino La Loma 2021","description":"","brand":"Misa","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47212292210921,"sku":"20840372702744","price":74.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/files\/IMG-8915.png?v=1715203097"},{"product_id":"2016-la-fluer-vivaltus","title":"2016 La Fleur Vivaltus","description":"","brand":"Syriana","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47454071128297,"sku":"","price":54.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/files\/IMG-9029.png?v=1719427282"},{"product_id":"ukan-rioja-2020","title":"Ukan Rioja 2020","description":"\u003cp data-start=\"45\" data-end=\"113\"\u003eIf Senderos de Ukan is the path, Ukan Rioja 2020 is the destination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"115\" data-end=\"387\"\u003eThis is the flagship wine from Ukan, the bottle that most clearly shows what the Eguren family set out to do when they founded the estate in Villabuena de Álava: strip Rioja back t to strip Rioja back to its bones—vineyard, altitude, limestone—and rebuild it with precision, restraint and unmistakable character.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"389\" data-end=\"867\"\u003eDrawn from old-vine Tempranillo parcels in Rioja Alavesa and handled with meticulous care, Ukan Rioja 2020 is deeper, more layered and more structured than its sibling, yet never heavy. The aromatics unfold gradually: dark cherry, blackberry and plum skin layered with violet, warm spice, graphite and a subtle echo of cocoa and cedar. On the palate, the wine is firm but supple, driven by fine-grained tannins and a core of freshness that keeps everything lifted and energetic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"869\" data-end=\"1156\"\u003eTim Atkin MW awarded it 95 points, praising the wine’s precision, balance and site expression, and placing it among the most compelling modern Riojas of the vintage. This is not Rioja chasing international polish; it is Rioja framed by detail and careful work in the vineyard and cellar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1158\" data-end=\"1483\"\u003eWhat makes Ukan Rioja 2020 especially compelling is its clear sense of purpose. The Eguren family’s goal here is not scale or spectacle, but longevity—wines that age well, reward attention and belong at the table. This is Rioja made for serious food and time: roasted lamb, mushrooms, aged Manchego and long, unhurried meals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1485\" data-end=\"1752\"\u003eEnjoy it now with a decant to highlight its youthful clarity, or cellar it confidently over the next decade and beyond. Either way, it stands as a modern Rioja benchmark, with one foot firmly in tradition and the other pointing toward where the region is headed next.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1754\" data-end=\"1775\"\u003eCritical acclaim:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1777\" data-end=\"2085\"\u003e\"95 points. Deep violet-red to the eye, this wine has a bouquet of blackberry, dark chocolate and caramel. It is luscious on the palate, offering polished tannins wrapped around black cherry, mocha, anisette, violet and butterscotch flavors that wind down to a licorice-infused finish.\"\u003cem\u003e – Wine Enthusiast\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"2087\" data-end=\"2465\"\u003e\"95 points. The Eguren cousins are doing very exciting things at their urban Ukan winery, typified by the high quality of this pure Tempranillo from the three old-vine Laguardia parcels of El Estade, Valderromán and Zarzamochuelo. Subtle and stylish with nuanced oak, lively acidity, focused bramble and black cherry fruit and polished, textured tannins. 2024-30.\" – Tim Atkin\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Misa","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49331518439657,"sku":"18437021223146","price":54.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/files\/2371170.jpg?v=1767632504"},{"product_id":"2019-ostatu-gran-reserva-blanco","title":"2019 Ostatu Gran Reserva Blanco","description":"\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI realize I am beginning to abuse the privileges of running Terroir Club. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNo red wine this month. Two Spanish wines. And now, just to make the insubordination complete, one of them is a seven-year-old white Rioja with a little skin contact. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehave considered the charges. I plead guilty. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut darn it, this wine is so wonderfully, gloriously intriguing that I simply could not leave it behind.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe 2019 Ostatu Gran Reserva Blanco is the sort of wine that reminds me why Terroir Club exists in the first place. Not necessarily to assemble twelve months of perfectly symmetrical drinking, but to occasionally wander off into some strange, delicious cul-de-sac and discover something you may never otherwise have encountered. This month, apparently, that cul-de-sac is in Rioja.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd Rioja Blanco deserves the detour. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOstatu sits in Samaniego, in Rioja Alavesa, tucked beneath the Sierra de Cantabria, where the mountains help shelter the vineyards from the wetter Atlantic weather to the north. This is limestone country — calcareous clay, elevation, old vineyards, cool nights — and while the international reputation of Rioja was built overwhelmingly upon Tempranillo, white Rioja has its own wonderfully eccentric history.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eViura is at the heart of it. It is not an especially bombastic grape in youth, which turns out to be rather the point. Its great gift is its ability to hold acidity and evolve slowly, gathering complexity rather than merely losing fruit. In the right hands, mature Viura can become one of Spain’s great vinous shape-shifters: waxy, saline, herbal, nutty, smoky, citrusy and profoundly savory.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOstatu goes directly into that tradition with this Gran Reserva Blanco, while giving it a distinctly contemporary intelligence. The wine comes from old vines and is made for maturation rather than immediate gratification. There is a period of skin contact, which is important here — not enough to turn this into some wildly tannic orange-wine experiment, but enough to extract another layer of phenolic texture, aroma and structure. That little bit of contrarian mischief gives the wine a gentle grip and breadth that become increasingly fascinating as it ages.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd this one has aged. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSeven years. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat's where things get deliciously weird.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe youthful citrus and orchard fruit have begun their metamorphosis. Think preserved lemon, quince, yellow apple and dried apricot moving toward beeswax, chamomile, toasted almond and hazelnut. There is something faintly resinous and herbal lurking underneath — dried Mediterranean herbs, fennel, perhaps a little saffron — along with the savory, almost bouillon-like complexity that great mature white Rioja can develop. Then comes a bracing mineral salinity, keeping everything from becoming ponderous.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is broad without being fat, oxidative in suggestion rather than exhaustion, and textural without sacrificing freshness. The skin contact gives the palate an almost tea-like phenolic tension, while bottle age has begun sanding the edges into something beautifully mellifluous. It is simultaneously cerebral and gourmand: the sort of wine you can spend twenty minutes dissecting before realizing you have accidentally drunk half the bottle.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd this is emphatically a food wine. Roast chicken with crispy skin would be magnificent. Jamón Ibérico, naturally. Manchego. Grilled octopus. Salt cod. Mushrooms. Pork with herbs. Paella. Anything involving saffron, almonds, garlic or browned butter suddenly seems like a very good idea. This is white wine with the depth, texture and savory complexity we usually expect from red.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhich brings me back to my minor act of Terroir Club heresy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYes, there is no red wine this month. Yes, I have somehow given you two wines from Spain. Yes, one of those wines has skin contact. I understand how this looks.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut Terroir Club should occasionally be allowed a little capricho — a moment of inspired deviation from the expected. And this is precisely the sort of bottle worth breaking the rules for, because it is not something I can simply reorder once it is gone.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is essentially a one-shot wine. I get access to this perfectly matured release only once a year. The winery has already done the patient part for you: instead of buying young white Rioja and wondering what it might become someday, you get it at seven years old, right as all those fascinating secondary and tertiary flavors are beginning to emerge.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnd when this allocation is gone, it is gone. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSo I stretched the club a little this time. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eActually, I stretched it quite a lot!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut somewhere between the preserved lemon, beeswax, toasted almond, chamomile, saffron, limestone salinity and that unrepentant little whisper of skin contact, I stopped feeling particularly apologetic about it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSome wines are worth breaking the rules for, and this is one of them.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vino Veritas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51679941558505,"sku":null,"price":79.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/files\/IMG-3818.png?v=1787684736"}],"url":"https:\/\/waterfordwine.com\/collections\/rebel-rioja-farwell-09-17-26.oembed","provider":"Waterford Wine and Spirits","version":"1.0","type":"link"}