Rioja

R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Rosado 1997

Now its not every day that you drink a ten year old rose.  Many would ask why you would want to.  You may be aware that some of the great wines of Rioja spend a lot of time in oak, some times more than 10 years.  However most people would assume that this is only really for red wines, but both white and rosados get the big oak treatment too.  The purpose here is not add huge oak flavours, rather to produce a wine with great texture and flavour that is more tertiary than primary.  It is not a style that everyone will like, However it is said to be the wine of Spanish royalty.

The wine is made from Tempranillo, Garnacha, and Viura and is aged in old oak barrels for 4 years.  It is a very interesting experiment to open a bottle of this with a a couple of wine lovers and compare notes after a glass or so.  From what I've experienced, no two notes are remotely similar except for the colour!

Light tangerine in colour with a very complex nose of ripe tangerine and lemon with vanilla, nutty old wood, a bit of cherry, earth and clove.  The texture is to die for, light, think, oily and dry all at the same time, quite amazing actually.  Mouth watering acid with subtle lime, lemon and tangerine fruit, which are nice, but the attraction is the minerals.  Huge finish.  This is certainly in a world of its own, I'll rate it 91 Pts

Source: Toro/Woods Wines Price: $50 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.lopezdeheredia.com