López de Heredia Viña Cubillo Crianza Rioja '17

I had the great pleasure of visiting López de Heredia again this past March, and every time I walk through those cellars in Haro, I am reminded why this remains one of my favorite producers in the world. I have been selling these wines for more than 25 years now, and along the way I have been fortunate to become good friends with María José and Mercedes López de Heredia, the sisters who today carry forward one of the great family traditions in wine.

López de Heredia is not “traditional” in the decorative sense of the word. It is traditional because the family has remained deeply committed to the same principles that have guided the estate since Don Rafael López de Heredia y Landeta founded it in 1877. Much of the equipment in the cellar has changed very little since those early days. The wines are fermented in enormous old oak vats, aged in barrels made at the family’s own cooperage, and then held in the estate’s vast underground cellars until they are deemed ready. Nothing is rushed, nothing is manipulated, and nothing is released until the family feels the wine has reached its proper place.

What is sometimes overlooked, however, is that López de Heredia is, above all, a producer of terroir wines. In a region where many large bodegas blend fruit sourced from across Rioja, López de Heredia farms its own vineyards, each with a distinct identity. This commitment goes back more than a century. In 1913, Don Rafael founded Viña Tondonia, one of the earliest great single-vineyard wines of Rioja. Long aging, old barrels, and traditional methods are certainly central to the estate’s identity, but they are all in service of something even more important: expressing place.

Viña Cubillo comes from Viña Cubillas, a vineyard located about two and a half miles from the bodega, with vines averaging around 40 years of age. It is bottled as Crianza, the youngest red wine designation at López de Heredia, though as is always the case here, the wine far exceeds the minimum requirements of the Rioja DOCa. With old vines, estate fruit, meticulous cellar work, three years in barrel, and additional aging in bottle before release, Cubillo remains one of the great values in traditional red wine.

The wine is bright, graceful, and wonderfully versatile, with red fruit at the center and the added lift and complexity that come from Garnacha, Mazuelo, and Graciano in the blend. It has the unmistakable López de Heredia signature: earthy elegance without fragility, maturity without heaviness, and an ability to feel both timeless and immediately drinkable. It is exactly the kind of Rioja I want on the table with tapas, roast chicken, lamb chops, or a wedge of manchego.