1996 - R. Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Blanco Reserva, Rioja

(aged for six years in American oak barrels and then held in bottle for at least five years before release) Bright yellow-gold. Dried pear, peach pit, vanilla, marzipan and toasted brioche on the deeply perfumed, expansive nose. Chewy, densely packed and focused, offering bitter pear skin, hazelnut and anise flavors and a refreshingly bitter hint of lemon pith. Stretches out slowly with air and finishes spicy, smoky and very long, with repeating anise and pear notes and dry, minerally cut. This complex wine benefits a lot from aeration.