The wines of López Heredia are some of Wine Cellar’s most prized imports and we are blown away each time we open a bottle. View our López Heredia offer here; and see Neal Martin’ s review of these extraordinary wines below. 

‘I have adored, indeed occasionally worshiped, the wines of Lopez de Heredia for many years, so I am not ashamed to admit that visiting both their vineyard and their winery was a pilgrimage. Founded by Rafael Lopez de Heredia y Landeta in 1877, it has withstood the tide of corporatization and homogeneity, and epitomizes timeless, artisan winemaking in their own individual, almost solipsistic manner. Technology is noticeable by its absence here. For example, to quote her sister Maria-Jose at a tasting that I subsequently attended in London: “Indigenous yeasts have adapted to high temperatures. To control the temperature during fermentation, we open doors and windows” and “malolactic is the invention of modern winemakers.” I had to check whether this was 2012 or 1912.
If you were to award points for charisma, then this producer would be in a league of its own. That would count for nothing if their wines were not distinguished, individual, long-lived and above all, delicious. It is commonly known that if you are seeking bags of fruit and lashings of oak, this is not the place to come. My views and these scores might be irrational to someone with a penchant for lush, voluptuous Rioja. Lopez de Heredia is the apotheosis of traditional, classic wines: taut, fresh, bucolic, utterly charming and amazingly long-lived. I spent two or three hours with winemaker Mercedes Lopez de Heredia, who was celebrating her birthday with, appropriately enough, a bottle of Tondonia Gran Reserva from her year of birth. I urge readers to access the video I took of Mercedes explaining the vineyard in her own breathless style. In the meantime, I will crack on with the wines.
“Wines should talk by themselves,” Maria-Jose enthused to her enraptured audience at a tasting in London. “My father was a vine maker, not a winemaker. Each wine is a reflection of a different land that my great-grandfather bought. Our wines respond to the history of Rioja.” I would add to her comments that since these are mainly aged wines, a bottle of Lopez de Heredia is an individual and each time you meet, you may see a different side to its personality. So treat these reviews as they are: snapshots at a given moment. We commence with their white wines and indeed, I know of several connoisseurs who rate these even better than their reds and I can sympathize with that view. “The white wines were made as a copy of Graves and were made to be aged,” Marie-Jose continued. “So they are made like reds and are harvested at the same time. They undergo skin contact for one, two or three days to absorb the preservative from the skins and pips. Viura gives complexity as it ages.’ – Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate
Neal Martin’s tasting notes
Viña Cubillo Tinto Crianza 2006
The 2006 Vina Cubillo Tinto Crianza is a blend of 65% Tempranillo, 15% Garnacho (some wineries, like Lopez de Heredia, Muga or Telmo Rodriguez use the masculine name of Garnacha) and the rest Mazuelo and Graciano. It is aged for three years in used 225-liter American oak barrels (the only ones they use), racked twice per year, fined with egg whites and bottled unfiltered. It has a dark ruby color with an orange-brownish rim and a nose of red fruit, citric notes of candied orange skin and fresh blood orange, white pepper, balsamic herbs and some raw meat aromas. The palate is very polished, with balsamic flavors, sweet tannins and good acidity. A good traditional Rioja. Drink now-2021. 89 points, The Wine Advocate
Viña Tondonia Tinto Reserva 2002
The 2002 Vina Tondonia Reserva is a blend of 75% Tempranillo, 15% Garnacho and 10% between Mazuelo and Graciano sourced from their Tondonia vineyard located in a large meander of the Ebro River on the outskirts of Haro. It is aged for six years in used barrels, racked twice per year during its upbringing and fined with egg whites before being bottled unfiltered. It has a slightly reduced nose that benefits from air contact, with shy aromas of cherries in liqueur, tea leaves, fine leather, game, blood, spice box and cigar ash, showing some evolution. The light to medium-bodied palate is balanced, with high acidity, but perhaps a little fragile, showing the difficulties of the vintage, as 2002 was a very difficult year in Rioja. 250,000 bottles were produced. Drink 2014-2019. 91 points, The Wine Advocate
Viña Tondonia Tinto Gran Reserva 1994
The 1994 Vina Tondonia Gran Reserva has an elegant bouquet with light red cherries, orange blossom, mahogany bureau and burnt buttered toast. The palate has a meaty, savory entry with crisp tannins and racy acidity. It displays superb structure towards the finish where one finds notes of bitter lemon, orange peel and sage. Delicious! Drink now-2030+. 96 points, The Wine Advocate
Viña Gravonia Blanco Crianza 2004
The 2004 Vina Gravonia Blanco is pure Viura from a vineyard named after the white wines from Graves in Bordeaux, which Don Rafael Lopez de Heredia y Landeta, founder of the winery, admired. It is aged for four years in used barrels, racked every six months and bottled after being fined with egg whites. 40,000 bottles were produced in the great 2004 vintage. It has a bright, shiny (almost fluorescent!) yellow color and a fresh nose of citric fruit (pink grapefruit), fennel, dried flowers, chamomile, beeswax and hints of mushrooms. The palate has superb acidity, which gives it incredible freshness with great delineation and purity of flavors finishing very dry with a mineral, almost saline note. It invites you to have another bottle! This wine is labeled Crianza, but the aging times (and the quality) greatly exceed the requirements for the category. It’s sold almost a decade after the vintage year, so I still consider it a real bargain. Delicious now, but it should age with style. Drink new-2024. 94 points, The Wine Advocate
Viña Tondonia Blanco Reserva 1999
The 1999 Vina Tondonia Blanco Reserva from their flagship Tondonia vineyard, whose name is as known and almost interchangeable with that of the winery, is the white Reserva bottling. The current vintage for white Gran Reserva (which is easily identifiable as it is sealed with thick red-orange wax) is 1991 and the next one will be 1996, which won’t be sold until 2016. The white Tondonia Reserva, a blend of 90% Viura and 10% Malvasia, spent six years aging in used barriques during which time it was racked every six months and fined with egg whites before bottling unfiltered. It has a bright yellow color and a serious nose full of old waxed furniture, incense, pollen, dried flowers, mushrooms and a chalky, mineral note. The palate has intense, almost pungent flavors, great complexity and balance. It shows incredibly young for its age. A unique white Rioja and a unique white wine. Drink now-2020. 92 points, The Wine Advocate
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