It’s true. I make this recomendation every year. But that’s because it works. And because I really love the wine. And because maybe this year….you’ll take me up on it!
Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva 2000 (Rioja, Spain): Imagine Thanksgiving dinner (the food, not your crazy uncle or your tispy cousin-three-times-removed.) The cranberry sauce, the turkey, the yams, the turkey, the stuffing, the turkey. It’s a wine-pairing nightmare. But this is the wine that can handle it all. Delicate enough to handle the turkey (which let’s face it, is pretty bland), a little fruit to deal with the cranberries and exotic enough to stand up to the stuffing, yams, and even pumpkin pie. It’s perfect. But it’s not exactly your typical rosé – it has some of the tangy-ness you’ll find in a good fino sherry, only a hint of fruit, and lovely exotic spices like cardamom and ginger. So if you’re intrigued and looking for a little adventure pick up a bottle.
Not a holiday goes by that I can’t find a reason to mention Lopez de Heredia. If this is the first you’re noticing…we’ll you’re really not paying attention! But if I learned anything in my corporate marketing days, it’s all about repeat exposure so….here we go again!
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Cue up the old lady crying into the wind. Other oldish-timers will look at the price below and start to scream as well. Lopez de Heredia Rosado was never meant to be a cult wine. At a long ago breakfast-tasting (yes, breakfast tasting,) Maria José López de Heredia told those of us there that this wine was something made just for the local people. It was something they liked to drink that was never really meant to be sold outside the town. If my numbers hold, I think the number of cases was something like 200. But it was sold out of town, and a handful of account fell in love with it, including mine. We would buy it five cases at a time. On deal pricing. Yes, long ago thre was a FIVE CASE PRICE on Lopez de Heredia Rosado. These days, you’re lucky if you can get FIVE BOTTLES!!!! Because if you do the math, even if every bottle of those 200 cases were sent to the USA (which they were not), it doesn’t take long before all those bottles are sold – with or without a five case deal. And this was a very long-aged wine…. so as I noted below, one year we were selling the 1997, the next year, the 1998. Then the 2000. And in 2010, this was probably around the time of that breakfast tasting with Maria José, when she quietly dropped the new that there would be no more rosado for many years, because they needed to let what they had age as the previous vintages had. (I think they “many” was seven, but I would need to check my notes.) So there was a very long period of no rosado to be had. When it eventually returned to the market, it had acquired the status of myth among a new crop of buyers It had also acquired a very new price – it now lists at most shops for over $100 per bottle. I don’t begrudge that price – this is truly a small production wine that requires a very long period of aging – and I think/hope that the winery is seeing as much of this price increase as the distributors and the retailers. There are many wines out there that cost as much or more and offer much less in terms of rarity and the time-value-of-money. But I do feel a bit of resigned nostalgia. Nostalgia for the ability to buy as much as I wanted whenever I wanted. And of course, for the price. But it was more than that – that general accessibility allowed the handful of buyers that fell in love with the wine to run with it for a bit, to make a market in it, to introduce it to would-be fans in our own communities. That was simply put, so very much fun. At the higher price – and given that each shop or account gets something like three bottles… you already have to be in the know if you ever want to drink it. And that’s a bit of a bummer. And with that… the old lady crying into the wind is heading off to get her coffee.
I write this post every year. Well, to be completely frank (ha ha), I just cut and paste this post every year. Which I’ll do again, with a few notes about how this vintage differs from the last. So go ahead and read below…or be truly trusting and just click right through the Frankly Wines store. Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva 2000 (Rioja, Spain)
This post is a re-run. But I thought it was pretty perfect when I wrote it last year (and the year before that). And I still think it’s pretty perfect. The wine in question is the Lopez de Heredia Rosado. Two years ago the 1997 was in stock. Last year it was the 1998. And this year, it’s the 2000, which I find to have more of the mineral notes of the 1997 than the rounder, more tropical fruit of the 1998. But even at its fruitiest, this is not a fruity wine, which is unexpected for a rose. Unexpected enough that we stuck a warning label on the wine. But if you trust my pairing recommendations – and you’re up for a little adventure – a little Lopez Rosado could be just the thing to perk up your Thanksgiving spread.
Here’s the scoop:
Imagine Thanksgiving dinner (the food, not your crazy uncle or your tispy cousin-three-times-removed.) The cranberry sauce, the turkey, the yams, the turkey, the stuffing, the turkey. It’s a wine-pairing nightmare. But this is the wine that can handle it all. Delicate enough to handle the turkey (which let’s face it, is pretty bland), a little fruit to deal with the cranberries and exotic enough to stand up to the stuffing, yams, and even pumpkin pie. It’s perfect.
But it’s not exactly your typical rosé – it has some of the tangy-ness you’ll find in a good fino sherry, only a hint of fruit, and lovely exotic spices like cardamom and ginger. So if you’re intrigued and looking for a little adventure, track down a bottle and include it in your turkey day wine spread. You should be able to find it for under $30 which may be a lot for a typical rosé, but not this rosé.
Since Suggestion #6 involved a wine I couldn’t even sell, these next suggestions center on wines exclusively available at Frankly Wines. OK, the wines aren’t exclusive to my store, but I dare you to find all these ones at any one place…other than Frankly Wines!
All horn tooting aside, last year, it became very clear that many customers really don’t want to think too much about what they’re serving for Thanksgiving. Sure, there are plenty of customers that do want to discuss the intricacies of their various side dishes or the specific ingredients in their stuffing, but they’ve generally not doing their shopping the day before Thanksgiving. For those last minute shoppers, I’ve put together three different 3-Packs. Each includes a red, white, and rose, all boxed up and ready to grab and go.
Here they are:
THANKSGIVING WINE 101 All three of these wines were Frankly Wines best sellers. They’re all tasty, easy-drinking crowd pleasers that won’t offend your turkey (or your crazy aunt.)
Sebastiani Chardonnay 2007 (Sonoma, California): Creamy Chardonnay goodness balanced by a crisp citrus edge. This is even a hit with those who “don’t like Chardonnay”
Mark West Pinot Noir 2008 (California): Bright, pure fruit with a hint of spice. Not too heavy, not too light – it’s the ideal accompaniment to a table full of Thanksgiving treats.
Crios Rosé of Malbec 2009 (Mendoza, Argentina): Made from the Malbec grape, this is a rose with a kick. Big fruit, big spice – it’s a red wine that just happens to be pink.
PRICING:$36.99 (regular price $40.97)
TURKEY DAY UPGRADE Show your bird a little love and upgrade the liquid portion of your dinner These grape varieties are just one or two steps removed from the usual suspects – without being weird or wine geeky.
Markus Fries Bernkasteler Schlossberg Kabinett 2007 (Mosel, Germany): Almost-dry Riesling from a tiny producer. Despite fears to the contrary, that tiny bit of sweetness is what makes this a perfect paring for nearly anything.
Noëlla Morantin Mon Cher Gamay 2008 (Loire Valley, France): Think of Gamay as Pinot Noir’s vibrant country cousin. This one is made by a young winemaker from fruit sourced from the culty Clos Roche Blanche vineyards.
Nigl Zweigelt Rose 2008 (Kremstal, Austria): Nigl is a tip top producer in Austria. Zweigelt is a red grape rarely (ever?) seen outside of Austria. And this rosé is a smashing blend of fresh berry fruit and a white pepper kick.
PRICING:$49.99 (regular price $57.97)
THANKSGIVING ADVENTURE PACK Face it – turkey day food can be a little boring. But you can bring an a little adventure to your table with this 3-Pack. Yes, these wines are at the bleeding edge of wine geek coolness, but they also happen to be pretty tasty. Don’t be scared….
Bornard Arbois Pupillin Melon Le Rouge Queue 2006 (Arbois, Jura, France): In the Jura region, Chardonnay is called “Melon.” But the taste is totally different. Pure, clean fruit with a slightly sherry-like tang. Weird but good.
Cos Cerasuolo Vittoria Classico 2007 (Sicily, Italy): A blend of Nero d’Avola and Frappato from Sicily. You can taste the Sicilian sunshine, but not in a cooked way. It’s all bright cherries, fresh earth and a whiff of spice.
Lopez de Heredia Todonia Rosado 1998 (Rioja, Spain): From one of the last 100% old school producers in Rioja, this is not your typical rosé. A perfect balance of sherry-like tang, exotic spices and ghosts of fruit. PRICING:$74.99 (regular price $97.97)
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Yes, every time I see a bottle of this rosado on this blog, I will do my old person thing and scream at the clouds about how it used to be readily available… like five-cases-at-a-time available. So just deal with it!
Originally published on November 15, 2009.
This post is a re-run. But I thought it was pretty perfect when I wrote it last year. And I still think it’s pretty perfect. The wine in question is the Lopez de Heredia Rosado. Last year, the 1997 was in stock. This year, it’s the 1998, which is a touch rounder, a touch more tropical. But tropical for Lopez isn’t exactly Hawaiian tropics. I say it every time I talk about this wine – the fruit isn’t the primary note, which is unexpected for a rose. Unexpected enough that we stuck a warning label on the wine. But if you trust my pairing recommendations – and you’re up for a little adventure – a little Lopez Rosado could be just the thing to perk up your Thanksgiving spread. On to the re-run:
Lopez de Heredia Todonia Rosado 1998 (Rioja, Spain) Imagine Thanksgiving dinner (the food, not your crazy uncle or your tispy cousin-three-times-removed.
The cranberry sauce, the turkey, the yams, the turkey, the stuffing, the turkey. It’s a wine-pairing nightmare. But this is the wine that can handle it all. Delicate enough to handle the turkey (which let’s face it, is pretty bland), a little fruit to deal with the cranberries and exotic enough to stand up to the stuffing, yams, and even pumpkin pie. It’s perfect.
But it’s not exactly your typical rosé – it has some of the tangy-ness you’ll find in a good fino sherry, only a hint of fruit, and lovely exotic spices like cardamom and ginger.
So if you’re intrigued and looking for a little adventure, track down a bottle and include it in your turkey day wine spread. You should be able to find it for under $30 which may be a lot for a typical rosé, but not this rosé.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Yeah, that never happened. We never made a window display of LdH bottles filled with tiny foam leaves. I think the prices started to go up and we had to put the breaks on the drinking of it, so not so many empty bottles. But it would have been very, very cool.
Originally published on November 4, 2009.
Alright, alright. I write about LdH all the time.
But this time, it’s not about the wine. It’s about hundreds of tiny plastic leaves shoved into a bottle of Vina Tondonia.
Looks cute, doesn’t it?
Next autumn, I’m envisioning a window filled with bottles of LdH, each filled with hundreds and thousands of these tiny leaves.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: 6 cases!!! 6 cases!!! These days, ten years later, we get 6 bottles. And that’s only because I whine and cry and tell sad stories about the days when I used to be able to buy 6 cases at a time. 6 CASES!!!
Originally published on September 12, 2009.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve written about Lopez de Heredia before. Their whites, their reds, their aged wines, their younger wines, their roses. In terms of wines and wineries most mentioned on my site, it’s probably a toss up between Lopez and Chateau Musar. If I could stock the store solely with these wines…and make any sort of a profit….I would do it. If anyone has any thoughts as to how this might be possible, please do let me know.
Anyhow…back to my broken record Lopez tendencies. Today, I’m revisiting the Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Rosado…for the 3rd time on the Frankly My Dear blog. I’m excited about this wine (again) because we just brought in 6 cases of the 1998, which is the newest vintages. It’s a little bit more fruit forward than the 1997. But this doesn’t mean it’s fruity. It’s definitely not fruity – and still requires a warning label because of its distinct non-fruitiness. But compared to last year’s version, it’s a bit more tropical. It’s still a holy trinity of funkiness: Fino Sherry tang, exotic spices, and those subtle, almost ghost-like tropical fruits.
Now 6 cases may seem like a lot for a $25 bottle of non-fruity rose. But the most recent shipment from Spain was only 50 cases. Which isn’t a lot. If 20 accounts take 2 cases each (because there’s a 2 case purchases deal, which most stores will by on) than that only leaves 10 remaining cases for a second round of purchases. And without a good sense of when the next shipment will be arriving (October? November) if I took just 2 little cases, there would be a good chance I would be out of stock And this is one of those wines I HATE being out of stock on.
So I sucked up 6 cases. This decision was based on neither cash flow nor margin considerations (the two main factors driving most of my size-of-buy decisions.) It was simply based on wanting to keep this wine in stock. It’s a decision even my accountant would understand.
To start, a mention in the New York Times will certainly raise consumer interest and increase sales, but it won’t cause a nationwide feeding frenzy, as when a wine is crowned, say, the Wine Spectator’s “Wine of the Year.” And while old-school Rioja is easily one of the best values in fine, age-worthy wine, it’s still not inexpensive – and in this economy, even the big stores are watching their inventory levels and working capital expenses.
Another mitigating factor of the giant sucking sound – there just isn’t a huge amount of old-school Rioja sitting around in the distributor’s warehouses. These wineries tends to release a specific vintage when they feel it’s just entering the first phase of “ready-to-drinkness.” And from what I can gather, they only release a portion, with a fair amount of their stock held back in their cellar for release at a later date. This later date generally takes the form of a DI offering, during which retail and restaurant wine buyers get to mull over lists of old vintages and decide how much of each to buy.
I’ve written before about how these offers are like Christmas for wine buyers. For me, this is especially true for the Rioja DI offers from the traditional, old-school Rioja. These are wines that seem to age endlessly, gaining a leathery, tea-leafy complexity as the primary notes fade into a haunting whiff of exotic spices and ghostly fruits. I could go on, but you might start to laugh. These are wines best drunk slowly and quietly, because you can sound a little silly if try to describe them.
So my DI wish list can get a little crazy, with most of the bottles falling under the heading of “one for me, one for the store.” But the actual purchase order is trimmed to a more fiscally responsible level. And then the wines arrive…and I squirrel them away and drag my feet on pricing them, setting them up in the system, and putting them out on the Internet. Because I really don’t want any one to buy them. I want to keep them….all.
Such is my love of old, old-school Rioja.
But the New York Times piece, great sucking sound aside, inspired me to share the love and let my semi-secret stash be known. So every bottle of Lopez de Heredia, La Rioja Alta, and Bodegas Riojanas in the shop is priced up and ready to go.
Well, almost every bottle. Fiscal responsibility only goes so far.
Did you hear it? Over wine distributor warehouses on Staten Island and Long Island and near the ports of New Jersey? What was it? A giant vacuum cleaner? A massive sieve? A colander from the great beyond?
An article gets published in a major paper or wine publication. Specific producers are mentioned. Customers read the article and want the wines. Retailers know there will be customers asking for those wines, which means relatively quick and easy sales. So they call their distributors and order lots of whatever wine was mentioned. This creates a giant sucking sound as those cases of wine move from distributor warehouses onto shelves across the city.
OK, so this process really doesn’t make a sucking sound. It’s more like the clicking of cell phones and computer keyboards as orders are placed, followed by the drone of delivery trucks. But you get the picture.
Now I don’t generally chase the wines that appear in these articles. The Frankly Wines selection is so tightly edited, that there’s just not space for whatever wine happened to be mentioned in publication X the day before. It’s also a good bet that I’ll already have a wine from the region in question – something that I think offers similar or even better value. After all, it’s my job to find those wines and if I’m only reading about them in the paper, well, I’m not doing a very good job.
But sometimes, I already have one of the wines being mentioned. And this can be a bad thing. Sure, it’s nice to get the quick and easy sales that come when a wine is suddenly sought out by lots of customers. But that bad thing is the giant sucking sound. The sudden demand can pull all of the wine out of the system within a day or two. I either have to buy more – and I can never buy as much as the big guys that make a living at this game. Or I have to come to terms with a favorite wine’s impending unavailability and find a replacement. And that sucks. Literally. Or figuratively.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Alas, Amy Atwood’s mydailywine.com blog is no longer up and running. But she’s importing wine, so that’s probably a better use of her time. And at this point, ten years on, you can easily google ‘natural wine’ and a heap of articles will pop up. Or you could buy Alice’s book, Natural Wine for the People. Or subscribe to her newsletter, The Feiring Line, which I edit. Surprise!!
Originally published on July 23, 2009.
A recent post by Alice Feiring’s on her blog, In Vino Veritas, set off a small firestorm of a discussion on taste…good taste, bad taste, elitist taste, Devil Dog taste. The initial post was about Daniel Boulud’s “lowdown downtown place”, DBGB Kitchen and Bar. The bar is located on the Bowery, in the East Village, not far from the site of former punk-haven CBGB. For those not familiar with the intricacies of the New York restaurant scene or its gentrification geography, there’s a definite irony to a major multi-starred chef setting up shop on a street that was until only recently, best known for its many halfway houses.
I haven’t been to DBGB yet, but the post points out that the DBGB wine list is heavy on natural wines. Rather than lay out yet another definition of what makes a wine “natural”, I’ll just point you to another blog (mydailywine) which recently interviewed Alice. Since she is one of the leading voices discussing natural wine, her words should do just fine.
Now, back to the DBGB wine list. Lots of natural wines, which as Alice says in that post I pointed you to (go ahead, you know you want to read it now,) can be quite shocking. They don’t taste like other wines. Or to be more specific, they don’t taste like wines with big ratings from the big wine rating gurus. Which to generalize just a bit, is what many of the customers at a “lowdown downtown place” fronted by a big time fancy chef are going to expect.
Alice brought up the concept of warning labels. Since these wines can be a little, well, odd when not given a bit of context, why not put a warning label on the menu? Proceed with Caution. Or a skull and cross bones?
I had to laugh at the thought….because we tagged our first bottle with a warning label about a year ago: the Lopez de Heredia Rosado 1997 (now we’re into the 1998.) Fino sherry notes, exotic spices, very little fruit. Not so popular with someone looking for a lovely little Provincial rose. Generally, we were able to give verbal warnings, but sometimes if it was really busy, a bottle would manage to escape without getting its proper due. And often, that bottle would get returned because its new owner thought it was “off.” It wasn’t, it was just odd. So we would swap it for something else and drink it ourselves. A nice treat, but not so fiscally responsible.
