David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.3

2010 a strong vintage & still accending. Costco Ribcap vs Allen Brothers.

Sofia & I stayed in downtown Alba in 2015. Arrived early evening & sadly after their big wine festival. Pio Cesare was around the corner and down two blocks from our hotel. Historic as hell.

I bought this at Costco for around $49.

Nebbiolo young is a huge tarry grape. The Italian’s ferment this with a lot of new wood. They actually hold Nebbiolo/Barolo in bottle and extra year or more before release. Also, longer than most other world regions based largely on the grape & even more their wood use.

This is drinking nicely after a four hour decant, but it is still ascending and another 10-15 years of good drinking ahead…properly stored.

Even with this age, its tarriness is the first descriptor. Followed by heated dark spices, slightly, dry b lackberries, dry, slight tart, dark cherries, black raspberries, black plum, some strawberries, tea leaves, black licorice to anise, sandstone, limestone, dry crushed rocks, dry top soil & brush, dry herbs, dry tobacco, light; clove, nutmeg & hints of vanillin, forest floor w/ dry leaves, some mint, dry, withering, dark, red flowers framed in violets, excellent acidity with a nicely evolved, well; structured, tensioned, balanced, smartly polished finished that goes on & on! — 16 days ago

Mike Saviage

9.7

Taken to Hawksmoor in NYC for our uncle’s 75th. Decanted in hotel for 7 hrs before dinner. Dark reddish amber edges with dark tawny color center. Opaque. Great aged Bordeaux nose. Notes of black fruit, tobacco and cigar, cassis, old desk wood, saddle leather, some anise, some barnyard and a little mint. Rich and silky in the mouth. Long finish. The bottle (mid shoulder) wasn’t in as good of condition as the one we had a few weeks ago, but the outcome was similar. Family and the Somm all loved it, as did I. — 2 years ago

Amy

9.0

drank the white- lovely drinkable non oak — 2 months ago

Rufus King

9.1

Refined Rioja Reserva served with chicken dinner at La Rotunda in the Palace Hotel in Madrid — 4 months ago

H

9.6

Elegant, velvety in mouth and very balanced. 2015 red — 3 years ago

Brett Emerson

9.4

Pair this classically perfect 14-year-old Rioja with cheese and crackers that you share with your beautiful wife, ideally in a hotel room after you’ve been evacuated from your home for a week due to fires caused by lightning storms. Your appreciation will be elevated if you precede your wine with a few days of cooking paella for hundreds of evacuees and firefighters. If this is not a possibility, I suggest pairing your Tondonia with grilled lamb, which will play well with the wine’s tobacco, leather and cranberry notes. — 4 years ago

Donald Williams

9.7

Leftover beef short ribs, mashed potatoes, asparagus, butter roasted radishes, and beet salad. Topped off with a 2006 Wellington Victory. I know it’s Tuesday, but why not treat ourselves? — 2 months ago

with Bonnie

Thomas Bowen

9.0

Wildly funky, leather, pipe tobacco, solvent, clean hotel room — a year ago

Jorge Pazos

9.7

Hotel Terramar — 3 years ago

Jordi Pazo

9.1

Hotel Majestic. La Gran Nit del Priorat.
28.02.20 — 4 years ago