López de Heredia 'Viña Gravonia' Rioja, Spain 2013

Style: White

Vintage: 2013

ABV: 13.5% 

Region:  Rioja 

Country:  Spain 

Varietals:  Viura  

Fun Fact: The most important white grape of Rioja where wines evolve over 10 or more years. In Catalonia, Viura is called Macabeo and is the primary blending grape in Cava sparkling wines.

Pairing Ideas: Pan-fried fish, roasted poultry, or pork chops could all work seamlessly with this gem of a bottle.  A simple side of oven-roasted garlic & herb potatoes with a pinch of salt will let the wine do all the talking for this meal.  

About: López de Heredia is a gem of a producer in Haro, founded in 1877.  Honestly, this wine one day will be impossible to get your hands on as the world continues to take notice of the great producers of Rioja and see a tremendous quality.   

100% Estate Fruit: Viña Gravonia wines come from our Viña Zaconia vineyard, named after a local term for the area.  Historically these wines were called Viña Zaconia, except when our founder made sweet white wines using “noble rot” (botrytis cinerea) – which he called Sauternia after the French Sauternes. Plenty of documents stored in our archives provide more details to this story. The wine today is a bone-dry skin contact white. 

The vineyard is 200 meters from the bodega and close to the banks of the river Ebro and was bought by our great-grandfather. Viña Zaconia has an altitude of 340 m, and the average age of vines is 45 years. The south-facing slopes are poor and stony, and roots are forced to go deep – hence grapes have balanced biological composition and ripen with complex flavors. The white soils help obtain a good tonality for white grapes. Viña Gravonia covers 24 ha, all of which are under Viura vines.