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R. Lopez de Heredia, Vina Bosconia Reserva Rioja 2012

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The Wine

Viña Bosconia wines come from our vineyard called El Bosque. Originally, our great-grandfather, the founder, with his French influence, gave the wines names inspired by French wines.  Viña Bosconia comes from a Burgundy-style wine that he used to make with a high percentage of Pinot Noir, and which he called “Rioja Cepa Borgoña”.

The El Bosque vineyard is situated next to the river Ebro at an altitude of 465m and it is one kilometre away from our winery.  Vines are planted on the south-facing foothills of the Sierra Cantabria range, providing them with the perfect conditions for ripening. The soil is a mixture of clay and limestone, and the average age of the vines is 40 years.
R. Lopez de Heredia

95 Pts James Suckling 'Savory aromas of subtle earthy berries, oranges, iron and hints of walnut, tobacco and mushrooms. Fine tannins with high acidity on the palate with juicy, savory berries and a long, citrusy finish. A hint of tertiary caramel character at the end, making this very complex and complete. Drink now or in the next 10-15 years.'

95 Pts Tim Aiken MW 'There are Bosconia fans and Tondonia fans and there are people, like me, who adore both. Sourced from a fairly extensive, south-facing, 62-year-old vineyard, this is a partnership of Tempranillo with 10% Garnacha and 5% each of Graciano and Mazuelo. Sweet and savoury, with notes of tobacco leaf and five-spice, some clove and pepper top notes, sappy acidity and raspberry and patisserie flavours. 2023-35'

93 Pts John Gilman, View from the cellar 'The 2012 Viña Bosconia “Reserva” from López de Heredia is a beautiful bottle of young Rioja, which is somewhat funny to write about a wine that is already twelve years of age! In this vintage, the wine is made from a blend of eighty percent tempranillo, fifteen percent garnacha and five percent of a mix of mazuelo and graciano. The wine was given fully five years aging in two hundred-twenty-five liter barrels made from American oak prior to bottling, and then a further four years of bottle aging prior to release. The wine is beautifully refined on both the nose and palate, with the bouquet wafting from the glass in an elegant mix of raspberries, cherries, Rioja spice tones, salty soil tones, orange peel, cigar wrapper and a bit of spicy oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and vibrant, with a superb core of fruit, lovely soil signature, fine-grained tannins and impeccable balance on the long, focused and complex finish. This is a beautiful wine in the making. It is certainly drinkable today, but to my palate, it needs another five years of cellaring (at least) to further soften up its moderate tannins and gain more of that signature velvety palate texture.'


The Details
Variety - Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo
Country - Spain
Region - Rioja
Extra - Cork
Year - 2012
Volume - 750ml

About the Wine Maker

For 141 years, four generations of the López de Heredia family have devoted themselves to producing exceptional and unique wines. Masterpieces which have achieved that which the founder of the company, Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta, defined in the late nineteenth century as the "Supreme Rioja".

Lopez de Heredia - one of the most venerable producers in Spain– produces traditional, age-worthy Rioja. Their wines are legendary and still made the way they were when the winery was founded over 130 years ago. Following a tradition that has been passed down through generations, their wines are released at least 5-10 years after harvest, which provides added complexity and elegance to their Crianzas and Gran Reservas. 

A rarity in Rioja, Lopez de Heredia uses only estate bottled fruit from their prized vineyards- Tondonia, Cubillo, Bosconia, and Zaconia- with the idea that the only way to get the best fruit is to care for the vines themselves. The Tondonia vineyard is their most famous; over 100 hectares, it is situated in a shell-shaped depression on the right bank of the river Ebro, where the most typical Rioja wines are grown. The soil is alluvial clay with a high proportion of limestone. Average vine age is 45 years old and organic farming and natural fermentations are implemented, creating wines that exhibit great terroir. Grapes from Viña Tondonia are always used in making their highest quality wines, with truly exceptional vintages becoming Gran Reservas. The first Reserva was bottled by the founder in 1890; a few bottles of this are still kept in the family wine museum.

The winery itself is a remarkable structure. When D. Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta began building the bodega in the late 1800's, little did he realise that his masterpiece would one day be acknowledged as an example to the rest of the industry of the most perfect combination of buildings and vineyards. Like many medieval masterpieces it is still incomplete. The buildings stand below and above ground, and are a veritable "cathedral to wine".  Moving through the vaulted underground corridors and staircases, you find yourself travelling back in time, and the founder’s touch can still be sensed in the very stones and fabric of the building. 

'For us, tradition and conviction are life-long attitudes. Our winemaking process has been passed on from generation to generation, and our daily tasks are rooted in tradition, yet at the same time based on our deep belief in the validity and modernity of our methods.  By “tradition”, we do not mean immobility and opposition to change; rather a dynamic and aesthetic concept in maintaining eternal principles and criteria. We are perfectly aware of the rhythm of change, and for this reason, our openness to change, our flexibility, our non-conformism and our self-criticism enable us to face the future. What we have inherited from our ancestors is what converts our idiosyncrasies into positive qualities and attitudes.' R. Lopez de Heredia