We have few opportunities to try aged white wines--they just don't tend to be as readily available as two or three-year-old whites. When Tim came across this 1998 López de Heredia Viña Gravonia Blanco Crianza at Addy Bassin's MacArthur Beverages, he picked it up out of curiosity. It's a $23.99 white Rioja, made from 100% Viura grapes (and organic ones, at that) at the family-owned López de Heredia winery.
We sipped it at home a few hours later and felt surprised by the oakiness sitting right in the middle of it. The taste is definitely not as subtle as French oak (it was aged in American barrels) but it's not as blatant as California-style oak. Like many oaky Chardonnays, especially California ones, it contains some hints of vanilla and creaminess. But it doesn't end like a chard; it's more acidic. After much debate, we identified the hard-to-pin-down fruit note as orange.
This isn't an unbelievably crafted wine. But the age on it gives it a few tricks up its sleeve that are hard to find in a younger bottle. We rate it as a 6.5.
