1947 Vina Tondonia Gran Reserva

According to María José López de Heredia, the frost from 1945 affected the following vintages, including the 1947, and they didn't have a great vintage until 1954. The red 1947 Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva, bottled in a Bordeaux bottle (compared with the Viña Real that comes in a Burgundy bottle), has some similarities with the Imperial from CVNE, also in a Bordeaux bottle and showcasing the finer Haro style of more serious and austere wines when compared with the more sensual, round and powerful Viña Bosconia (or Viña Real) bottled in a Burgundy bottle. I find more evolution and more volatile acidity here, a more evolved and polished wine. There might be some bottle variation because of the corks (in general, the CVNE corks were better), because I've had better bottles of the 1947 than the two we uncorked for the occasion of this tasting. Tondonia is a much larger vineyard—100 hectares—than Bosconia (only 15 hectares), but the surface in production is not always 100%. Even so, there are always more bottles of Viña Tondonia than the scarcer Viña Bosconia.