Forget Red! Why RIOJA'S White Wines Deserve Your Attention (Tasting 3 Amazing Wines)

[@nikifo13]

Great video in depicting the excitement of a wine expert stepping out of the regular/routine brands, labels and origins, which can be boring sometimes! I wonder if Riedel saw you at 2:41 before commercializing the stemless wine glass :P

[@NoSediment]

Hahaha, for sure they were way before me with stemless glasses! 🥂🥂🥂

[@mondarinvino107]

Agnes your pure excitement and positivity over these wines is so clearly coming thru on this vid! There is no doubt on the almost giddy expression on your face, and because of this such high endorsement on your part I am going to seek these wines out more. Cheers and thanks a lot!

[@NoSediment]

Wow, thank You. 🙏🏻 such a sweet comment that opened up my face in smile! 😊

[@barrelvinewhiskeyandwine]

Agnes you are doing so well on this venture. Great information. Great enthusiasm. A pleasure to watch!

[@NoSediment]

Thank You, very sweet of You. 🥰 comments and support like Yours gives me energy to continue. 🥂 Cheers!

[@keyrexoida]

I have 3 bottles of the Viña Tondonia Blanco in my cellar and i once drank a bottle in a winebar. Really an extraordinary wine, i highly enjoyed

[@NoSediment]

I also have few bottles in my fridge and guard them with my life. Great wines

[@ruaridhbakke1118]

I love that you pointed out this issue with clear glass bottles! I wish wine shops and restaurants would be more careful with this…

[@NoSediment]

Unfortunately I have tasted many light damaged wines, including some premium champagnes, and it just saddens me. Visually it looks great, but we never know if the quality will be there.

[@HugoLoMusic]

I absolutely adore the way you speak about these wines, i am not a huge fan of red riojas but the whites are among my favourites, as a spanish person it is always a pleasure to hear wonderful things about our wine, thank you!

[@NoSediment]

Thank You, very sweet of You. 🙏🏻 usually a good emotions are difficult to hide.

[@nasos00]

Lopez de Heredia whites are just incredible!!! I love their Reds too but I have never tried their rose, which I have heard is also a very beautiful wine

[@NoSediment]

I actually really love their reds, comparing with their whites, they offer amazing value. I always try to have few Bosconia’s in my wine fridge. 😅

[@dave7mm083]

I've added rioja blanco to my wines to try list due to this video. What excitement; very nice descriptions, and overall enthusiasm, must try. Thanks!

[@NoSediment]

Thank You. So very sweet of You to trust me so. 🙏🏻

[@chrisgilbert8024]

I've found that white Rioja can offer great quality at good prices. And, while we're stepping away from red for a while, I've also had some SUPERB rosé Riojas, with great complexity and, again, with a great price-quality balance. Thanks for another great video.

[@runkemartinsen8481]

The Muga Rosé is great

[@NoSediment]

Thank You! 🙏🏻 some white Riojas, however, do dictate crazy high price points, I was surprised when I checked. But yes, majority of them, great value.

[@NickyC81]

We've been a bit smitten with red and white Riojas for a couple years now. Every single bottle I've tried from R. Lopez has just exceeded expectations and we definitely prefer the traditional style as we've found mileage may vary (some amazing, some not great) with the more modern interpretations. I have never served a white Rioja where the guests were not happily surprised. These wines seem to have some quality that energizes people. But, as you said, they can be hard to come by. Costco sold a really good QPR white Rioja (2 Cepas) this year for a low price. They tend to be ahead of the curve for the large buyers in America so I'm hoping we see more access to white Rioja with time.

[@NoSediment]

I think the issue is the very limited production. Hopefully the vineyard are of white grape varieties will grow in the future. 🙌

[@welshtoro3256]

Sneaky second comment. You dealt with Rioja so this is for the rest. I recently had a really superb Chardonnay produced in Somontano. Navarra produces great Chardonnay too. We all know of Albarino of course but what of the really excellent and vibrant Txakoli in Pais Vasco (Basque Country)? Rueda anybody? There are some fine examples. Even that bastion of huge Temporanillo, Toro, can surprise you with good white. Of course, all of the above examples come from northern Spain but what of the south? Well, the answer is that they are also making great value white wines. There's some really interesting experimentation taking place in Andalusia with the grapes we are more familiar with in the world of sherry and often by the sherry producers themselves. Very distinct styles made with the Palomino and Pedro Ximenez grapes. Producers like Ximenez Spinola are making stunning wines which would be four times the price if they were made in Italy or France. I should also mention the great volcanic whites from the islands such as Tenerife. Every bit as good as their Italian counterparts. The prices are increasing as everywhere but they still represent fantastic value. I've been saying for years that Spanish white wines are one of the best kept secrets and most underappreciated wines on the planet. It's possible to buy excellent Spanish whites for less than $20 euros a bottle and world class whites for less than $50 euros. Spain continues to rock in the wine world and I believe that they are leading the way in great organic/biodynamic/low intervention wines too. They are smashing it but that's a story for another time. WT

[@ROGER-yo9cy]

Remelluri is a great white wine

[@palandi]

sveiki, Agnese! I love the whites from López de Heredia - and a 1999 Tondonia Blanco Reserva is the only wine from the past century I have ever tried so far. it was an epiphany to me - I never knew that there could be a wine like that! the negative part is that, if we could buy a Tondonia Blanco Reserva for 25 euro just 10 years ago, today you must add a 100-euro bill over and pay 125 for that. even the Gravonia is at around 50 euro today - although I was lucky enough to buy a bottle for 33 euro in Budapest early this year, and it was properly stored in a warehouse! still in my cellar today, gonna try it soon. I took note of the two other wines you tasted in this video but I can't get enough recommendations of white Rioja. do you have other bottles to recommend?

[@NoSediment]

I think the Rioja Blanco Monopole from CVNE is a great wine at a very reasonable price. 🙏🏻

[@Daniel_S700]

Absolutely love Lopez de Heredia although I do personally think that their whites and the rosé is superior to the reds. Tasted quite a few reds where all of the "fruit" flavors were "vacant" if that makes any sense, which almost made the wine taste hollow. But the white and the rosé stands in a category of themselves and they're always a treat. Even managed to score a 2004 Tondonia Blanco Gran Reserva for my cellar, do you think it'd be better to open it up in the coming years and just let it breathe whilst consuming it slowly over a couple of hours or would you try to save it for another bunch of years? Also, amazing content as usual, regards from Sweden!

[@NoSediment]

I completely understand what You mean, once the fruit is gone, the wine seems to be gone as well. I love some fruit in my wines, so I always am happy to open wines earlier than later. Saying that, I have had disappointing moments, when wine I have opened actually was filled with a lot of energy, and most certainly would have benefited from few more years in the bottle.

[@charlesthedeadlifter4376]

I recently had the red Viña Tondonia Reserva 2011 Vintage and it was superior!! If I come across the white one, I will definitely snag it.

[@NoSediment]

I do think that they might not be to everyone’s liking. But wines are truly great!

[@Colin-o9b]

I'm gonna start drinking white Rjiojas now 🎉 , because sweetie pie Agnese likes them.❤❤❤

[@ROGER-yo9cy]

Gravonia 97 and Remelluri 95, what a surprise!!!

[@NoSediment]

Great wines, indeed!

[@ROGER-yo9cy]

@@NoSediment , of course, different from each other, Remelluri is normally better

[@ROGER-yo9cy]

But I have two bottles of Gravonia in my wine celler 😁

[@runkemartinsen8481]

I've tasted a lot of white Rioja. Just love it. But let us keep this a secret...Shhhhh😂🤣

[@NoSediment]

Deal, will not bring this topic up again! I still want to be able to find it and afford it. 😉

[@welshtoro3256]

White Riojas have been completely underestimated for years. Everybody associates Rioja with red wine. Same is true for Spanish white wine throughout the country. That's fine though. More for me. 😋

[@NoSediment]

That is true, absolutely agree!

[@apistosig4173]

a very interesting presentation ;-) locally I have only found one.

[@oscarruiz7135]

They are extremely difficult to find. Love Tondonia but only been lucky once. Any recommendation or tips how to find them.

[@NoSediment]

Hahaha, no, not really. Getting closer to importers who represent them, thus receiving information when the new allocation is received. When I was in Spain, I couldn’t buy the white Tondonia’s at the winery. I drove around the area and visited best wine shops and asked. Some places were lucky. 🍀

[@collbackk]

Thank you for mentioning the white glass problematic.

[@NoSediment]

I find light damage to be one of the most common faults in the transparent glass. 🥺

[@collbackk]

@@NoSediment i learned all about it through the Wine Blast podcast. It’s plain crazy.

[@ROGER-yo9cy]

I guess you’ve tasted the wines from the known as the best winery from Rioja in white wines, Abel Mendoza, isn’t it?

[@ROGER-yo9cy]

Verdejo? It must be since a couple of years.

[@saltyard38216]

Vina Gravonia is great value and amazing, but their Tondonia Rosado has a little too much iodine for me. Great video, thank you.

[@NoSediment]

Thank You for Your insight. Next I come around that rare bottle, will pay more attention to it. 🙃

[@Blair338RUM]

Hard to get here in Australia. Unfortunately.

[@NoSediment]

Aside from large international companies, these are difficult to find even in Spain, Rioja. I remember I was browsing many wine shops to get these wines. Where I asked, they smiled and said - no, no, no.. 😞

[@Blair338RUM]

Ah I see. It was a very interesting video. Thank you Agnese.

[@AndreyRitenberger]

Unfortunately, I haven't tried too many white wines from Rioja or Spain in general. Maybe they are still not so "trendy," and their selection in the shops(in my country)not as wide as of wines from other more " popular" white wine regions One year ago, I tasted the Monopole Classico 2019. It was paired with Sea Bass, and I quite enjoyed it.

[@NoSediment]

I considered that wine for the tasting as well. 😉 But I 💯 understand You, yes, those are vey difficult to find. And those from larger, internationally represented companies - mostly offer more immediate style. 🤓

[@VictorGadelhaCam]

I thought you were going to show up with a Vina Tondonia Reserva Blanco. But this one is impossible to find!

[@NoSediment]

Hahah, that I reserved for other time! 😇

[@g.o.3262]

Tasted two of these. Yes, good. But I still prefer whites from Germany, Austria, Burgundy, and Rhone. So, I will stick with those instead.

[@NoSediment]

Sure, we should all enjoy what we prefer the most! 😊

[@ROGER-yo9cy]

Ondarre 😬

[@NoSediment]

😅

[@mepo90189]

White wine!?), what is that? Only kidding.

[@NoSediment]

White Rioja! 🤪

[@andrewyarosh1809]

Your headline is silly. Why would any lovers of fine wine “Forget Red” Rioja. If you are “forgetting” red Rioja, let me give you the address to ship all your López-Heredia so I can help you “forget.” These kinds of headlines devalue your credentials and great information your videos provide.

[@NoSediment]

Aren’t You a bitter person?