Tradition and craftsmanship, the roadmap of the López de Heredia winery

A living monument to tradition and craftsmanship, Bodegas López de Heredia opens its doors to Gourmet Hunters, to reveal its high quality formula, with more than 143 years of experience. The López de Heredia family has been escaping fashions for more than four generations and defending the same traditional style, very careful and scrupulous in all the stages of production of their wines, which were designed by their great-grandfather in 1877. On this occasion, Germán Barreiro, from the bodega’s Sales Department, answers all our questions and invites us to reflect: “When something is well done, why change it?

What attributes define Bodegas López de Heredia?

At our winery, the love for making our wines has been passed down from generation to generation, always maintaining a traditional and natural style. Bodegas López de Heredia is also characterised by its strong personality, far removed from more or less passing fashions, which allows us to create a sign of identity with our most emblematic wine, Viña Tondonia. That love and conviction, instilled over so many years, means that today we can proudly say that we are a historic winery where passion for the vineyard, wine and respect for nature and craftsmanship has prevailed above all else.

Hence the philosophy behind it?

One of the most important pillars of López de Heredia’s philosophy is that it is a family winery with 143 years of history, in which the fourth generation continues to this day with the project started by their great-grandfather, Don Rafael López de Heredia, in 1877, to make a fine, classic, handcrafted and unique wine: Viña Tondonia. It is also a winery that, from its origins, has defended that a great wine begins by being made in the vineyard, taking special care to obtain high quality grapes, which can only be achieved by loving the countryside. That is why our wines are named in the same way as our vineyards. It is also worth noting the exceptional treatment we have always received from the workers of this House, which allows us to feel the winery as our own.

Throughout these 143 years of history, have your wines been subject to change?

We could say that our wines are practically the same as those produced in the early years, although we cannot guarantee this 100% as, ultimately, we depend on the grape, and this changes from one year to the next. We have documents that explain how we cultivated the vineyard and made wine at that time, as well as tasting notes that describe our wines in the same way as we do with today’s wines. This constancy is due to the fact that we have always been faithful to our way of making wine, harvesting by hand and transporting the grapes in poplar wood containers, fermenting in hundred-year-old oak vats, ageing our wines in repaired barrels, which come out of our own cooperage, racking by hand… In short, making our wines as in the past, although always attentive to the changes of this world that is evolving so quickly. When something is well done, why change it?

What are the elements that explain why your white wines are well made?

We have been making white wines from our own vineyards all our lives, so we have a wide knowledge and experience in the vinification of this style of wines, which have a lot of body and a vocation for ageing, which makes them so peculiar and unique. Moreover, nowadays, the vines have a certain age and they give us high quality grapes. Also, our production method is quite similar for both whites and reds: fermentation in contact with the skins and long aging in reused barrels, ranging from four years at Viña Gravonia to six years at Viña Tondonia Blanco Reserva. And, in exceptional years, we produce Grandes Reservas that are aged for ten years in barrels. To all this we must add the long periods of aging that our wines spend in the bottle before they are released on the market.

What is the secret in its elaboration process?

The whole process of making our wines is full of particular and unique factors. Harvesting is done by hand, in a very traditional way, in the same century-old ways, repaired and maintained in perfect condition, of course, as used by the great-grandfather. This allows us to bring the grapes to the winery in good health and without breaking them. The fermentation is still done in oak wood vats over 100 years old. Of great importance in the quality of the wines are the species of yeast that produce the fermentation, indigenous microorganisms that in Lopez de Heredia have been kept in the winemaking vats, so we do not have to resort to the use of external yeast. Our aging in Bordeaux American oak barrels remains patient, long. Racking is carried out by hand twice a year, so that the decanted impurities remain as little as possible with the clean wine. This is done with rigorous precision to avoid excessive emptying of the barrel, which always remains “sideways”, thus avoiding direct contact of the wine with the oxygen from the outside. Thus, with great patience, in a selective way, the natural elimination, never forced, of how much could harm the good aging is achieved, while preserving all the factors that contribute to favor it. Clarification is carried out with fresh egg whites and then the wines are bottled without any filtering. The cork stopper, long and very aged, is also fundamental in order to guarantee long periods of aging in the bottle, thus achieving the finesse that can be appreciated on the palate when tasting our wines.