R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia
'Vina Gravonia' Crianza Blanco
Rioja
2012

The producer

Is Tondonia the heart and soul of Rioja? The bodega was built in 1877, the oldest extant in Haro, and one of the three oldest in Rioja. The estate’s vineyards now cover nearly 300 hectares in prime locations high in the Rioja vignoble.

The top of the range includes Vina Bosconia with a Reserva and Gran Reserva from the El Bosque vineyards, and Vina Tondonia, which includes both white and red Reserva and white, red, and rose Gran Reserva. All Gran Reserva wines are only from the best vineyards and selected as such by a panel of family members at eight years of age and kept for a further ten years in bottle before release. Extraordinary stuff!

The wine

Vina Gravonia is sourced from the 24-hectare Vina Zaconia vineyard, located by the Ebro River near the town of Haro in Rioja Alta. Made from 30–40-year-old Viura vines, this monovarietal wine ferments in 150-year-old oak vats, followed by 4 year’s ageing in 8- to 10-year-old American oak barrels, with racking twice a year. Complex is the first word that springs to mind, between the honey, ripe mirabelles, beeswax, truffle and candied lemon it is hard to put a word to all of Gravonia’s aromas and flavours. The palate is full with a silky texture yet has a firm structural lift that leads into a very long length.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.