$51.99 on 6+ bottles (use code 6saves3)

95 points Wine Advocate
The very pretty red 2014 Viña Tondonia Reserva is stunning. The blend this year is 80% Tempranillo, 15% Garnacho and the rest Graciano and Mazuelo. It matured in the old oak vats and well-seasoned American oak barrels for eight years and has 13.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.3 and 6.7 grams of acidity. María José told me she noticed the alcohol here compared with other vintages, but I found the wine to be really balanced, combining power and elegance, with energy and a polished and elegant palate. They have been bottling all the wines a little later than in the past, which was partly done intentionally but also because of circumstances, like availability of bottles or logistics related to COVID-19, etc. 300,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2022.

López de Heredia is releasing their Gran Reserva wines from 2005, now 21 years after the harvest. I tasted with María José López de Heredia, who was worried about the climate—even in Rioja, they are suffering the consequences—and how to keep contained alcohol in the wines. She was also worried about artificial intelligence and the digitalization of the world. But she's very happy with her wines, selling them like never before, and getting the recognition from consumers around the world. But she's also aware about the speculation with highly sought-after wines.

At the time, she hated 2015 because the red wines seemed overripe early on, perhaps the beginning of the warm vintages, but the wines now show balance. It was different for whites, because the 2015 whites were picked with good freshness. She compared 2004, 2005 and 2006 with 1994, 1995 and 1996. She says she always liked 2005, which she thought was a more powerful year, while 2024 was a little cooler. They didn't produce Gran Reserva in 2026, so the next vintage for the Gran Reserva bottlings will be 2007, when the three wines will come back. But she also insisted that there are not that many differences from vintage to vintage, because they want the wines to have a similar profile ("we have never released a Tondonia wine with 14% alcohol; we have never done it, and we will never do it"), even blending some vintages to keep the profile, especially the lower alcohol. - Luis Gutierrez March 2026