Wine Enthusiast, Amateur Edition
In the continuing vein of Spiers Obviously Hasn’t Read the Times All Week And Is Just Now Catching Up On The World Outside of Her Apartment, I just noticed that my all-time favorite Spanish wine producer got a review by Eric Asimov this week.
Lopez de Heredia’s ‘64 Vina Tondonia red is probably the best aged Rioja you can possibly buy. But they also do really great white riojas that are all the more unique because they age well. (If you haven’t had aged white wines before, you might not like it. It’s oxidized and smoky and nothing like the lemony California chardonnays so popular here.) You can get them at Astor Wines, which also carries several old vintages.
And the winery, which I visited a couple of years ago, is unique. They don’t really use modern techniques at all and their idea of temperature control is opening doors and windows. (That said, their traditionalism has its limits. They added a funky modern store/tasting room to the winery a while back. It was designed by Zaha Hadid.) From Asimov’s piece:
ABUNDANT wreaths of ghostly mold hang from the ceiling like sentinels, guarding thousands of bottles of gran reserva wine deep in the cellars of the R. López de Heredia winery here in the heart of Rioja. More mold and copious cobwebs are draped over the bottles, some of which have been aging in their bins for decades.
Both the mold and the cobwebs are intentional. The mold (penicillin) helps with maturation and they keep the spiders around to eat cork flies. (When I was there, the owner mentioned that a collector in New York once ordered a case and then complained that the bottles were moldy. The owner retorted that if he didn’t know why the bottles had mold on them and didn’t appreciate it, he didn’t deserve to own the wine.) The cellar has a pleasantly creepy Cask of Amontillado ambiance that’s pretty much the opposite of a Napa winery. Worth visiting if you get the opportunity.
(Honorable mention in the Rioja department: Muga. Very different, but good. If you’re still suffering from last year’s Jay McInerney-induced mass brainwashing that everyone should be drinking rosé and feel that you must, try this. It’s excellent and inexpensive.)
