Tondonia.

I have had little acquaintance with Spanish wine. (No laughing at the back please!) The delicious wine that came out of a barrel in a bodega in our pueblo in Cantabria was unbranded and retailed at about 100 pesetas a litre. Perhaps 110 if you were after the good stuff (50p at the time). I have since graduated to an upper limit of a fiver a bottle, or thereabouts. The kindness of family, friends and strangers sometimes takes me into deeper waters. Let me share the tale of such a gift which secured a great deal of affection in my heart for the parties concerned, they know who they are!

The bottle, Tondonia, Cosecha de 1985, Gran Reserva, was placed in my hand with the strict instructions to drink and enjoy over the holiday period. (Will you please stop laughing at the back! Thank you.)

The wine comes from the Bodegas R. Lopez de Heredia in Haro, in the Rioja Alta. The link gives details and they have been making wine for 140 years so perhaps they know a thing or two.

The bottle was sealed with wax the colour of the stuff that comes out of the mouths of mafiosi and sucklings when they have been shot in the lungs, in glorious Technicolor. Could I open it? It wasn’t a screw top. Would it be corked or oxidised? Would I be able to tell? I applied the waiter’s friend, double pull, with shaking hands. (Now then!) The wine was fine, no sign of taint and, of course, I just had to have wee sip to clarify the position on oxidation, ahem. It tasted very young and fruity. I decanted it and got on with the business of cooking my goose, which was in fact a free range chicken! About an hour later I had to have a further sip to make sure it hadn’t oxidised, evaporated, or suffered some other terrible mishap. (Sniggering is not allowed either!)

Of course it was fine and when I sat down to my meal later I was able to enjoy the wine. I do not have the language to describe it in expert terms but it was smooth, had lots of fruit, complex but pleasing flavours and no hint of rough treatment from the barricas that they use. If you are interested there is a man in an anorak who seems to know what he is talking about and who am I to disagree.

Strangely enough I did not finish the bottle. (Watch it!)

I left half for the following dayand I had my meal after Brenda, god bless her, had given her address to the nation. For any youngsters or diehard republicans this is like a You Tube that has been going on for 50 years, before You Tube was either profitable or popular, just a Glaswegian insult.

The wine was a revelation. A good wine, a very good wine, was transformed overnight. It was like seeing a pretty baby one night and finding a beautiful 22 year old the day after. A flower grown from nothing in a day’s turning.

I decided not to risk a third day and gave it the coup d'état, as Des would have said.

Muchas gracias!