Rioja Gran Reserva Tondonia Lopez de Heredia 2001 (750ML)

97 Points, James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com: "Wow. This is really something on the nose, offering ripe plums that are highlighted with old and used leather, walnut and cedar, reminiscent of the interior of a fine vintage sports car. Full-bodied with very fine tannins and delicious, ripe fruit that continues on for minutes. Tile and dark berry at the end. Still tight and fresh for the vintage. A great wine. Drink or hold." 11/20

98 Points, Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate: "The 2001 Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva is the follow-up of the 1995. There is a sense of harmony and elegance, of nuance and subtleness that wasn't quite the same in the Bosconia, as comparing both wines is inevitable. They started picking the red grapes the 15th of October, and the last grapes were picked the 29th of October with good weather. The grapes ripened properly and thoroughly, and the wine has great balance for a long aging in bottle. This is 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho and 5% each Graciano and Mazuelo that fermented in their 153-year-old oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used barrels for 10 years. It has 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.4 and 6.4 grams of acidity (tartaric). The nose shows young (tasting it blind, you'd guess a 10-year old wine, not a 20-year-old wine!). It has a nose of sweet spices, underbrush and cigar ash, somewhat balsamic, bramble fruit with perfect ripeness, integrated and young but starting to show some tertiary complexity. The palate is velvety and medium-bodied, with fine-grained, chalky tannins denoting a limestone soil that brings finesse and texture and a sapid, tasty, almost salty finish. This is going to make a beautiful bottle of old Rioja in 30 years' time! 25,000 bottles produced. It was bottled after being fined with egg whites in July 2012." 10/20

97 Points, Sarah Jane Evans MW, Decanter: "María José López de Heredia and her family are custodians of a remarkable way of living in the wine world, resisting the pressures to do things differently and to release their wines before their time. This remains the most Recent Gran reserva following on the from the 1995. Take time to appreciate its qualities in the glass: the youthful aspect; the medium body; the layers of red fruits and mature tannins. Nothing to suggest this is already 21 years old. It's clear that it has many majestic years ahead. (Drink between 2023-2080)" 12/22