"The poor man's Tondonia": Newly Arrived Hermanos Pecina

/ letuffeau.com (Link) “A family business … Hermanos Pecina is one of the few small wineries making very classical Rioja.” & “This is one of the few remaining ultra-classical Rioja wineries … ” & “ … one of the few remaining traditionalists that offer their wines at very attractive prices.” — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate — Hermanos Pecina Sonsierra, Rioja Alta “The ultra-classical Hermanos Pecina keeps producing a classical range of Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva wines. They have been called the poor man’s Tondonia even if it may sound pejorative, because they are one of the few remaining traditionalists that offer their wines at very attractive prices. It’s a family winery (“hermanos” means brothers in Spanish) with 50 hectares of own vineyards ranging from 16 to 60 years of age in the villages of San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Ribas de Tereso, Labastida and Salinillas, from which they produce some 250,000 bottles per year.” — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate “Earlier this year, I was greatly impressed by the wines of Hermanos Pecina. I saw what little had arrived into Australia in small quantity; a 2014 Crianza and a 2016 Reserva, both tinto. Digression After a particularly quiet and notedly balmy Saturday afternoon at Le Tuffeau I made a now infamous call to close up shop and depart to meet my wife at an institutional city bar. I found her at the counter sipping a Champagne. I promptly ordered, and even more promptly finished, a glass of sack. We were ushered out to a table and ordered a bottle. The bottle? An Hermanos Pecina 2016 Rioja Reserva. My wife also shares my affection for traditional Rioja, not to mention Claret as well. The Rioja lasted about 15 minutes between us. Utterly delectable. St.-Emilion followed, then friends arrived, and the night … descended.” I was, naturally, overjoyed when I was the first point of call for the newly arrived wines from Hermanos Pecina arrived into the country. These included a Blanco. To those of you, dear Readers, raising your eyebrows at this should realise that there exist classical white Rioja wines outside of the R. Lopez de Heredia Bodega. This blanco is unreasonably delicious, a model of traditionalism, and frankly absurdly cheap. The great wines out of their crianza, are likewise very old fashioned and well priced and come with my highest reccommendation.” — David ~ please note : discounts are automatically applied at checkout ~ orders of straight 6-packs will attract a 15% discount ~ by reply email ~ Blanco I Chobeo de Pecina 2024 Rioja Blanco Offer: $45.00 “Utterly classical, the 2024 Rioja Blanco bursts from the glass with notes of cedar shavings, toasted spices, grilled citrus, and dried flowers. I am immediately put in mind of R. Lopez de Heredia’s Crianza Blanco, the Vina Gravonia, which is likewise all Viura. Aeration sharpens the profile with fresh stone fruit, citrus pith, and oyster shell alongside nuances of crocus and baked bread. The aromatic wood oil quality here is utterly alluring. The palate is refreshing; sumptuous at its core, with chalky minerality and salty nuances mingling with oak spices on the sneakily long, drying finish. Indeed, the austerity here, the drying sensation, is most welcome. Once again, utterly classical. Souk spices including saffron - white pepper - cassia abound, together with mandarin, tart white orchard fruit, dried fennel seeds and fresh sliced fruit of same make up the palate. Hints of oyster and chalk on the close. An utter delight. Fine. The white wines of R. Lopez de Heredia may now be largely unavailable and unaffordable; no doubt I will be drinking this wine all Summer instead.” — David “The white 2024 Chobeo de Pecina Blanco was produced with Viura from two vineyards. It fermented in new American oak barrels, where it matured for three months. That short time exposed to new wood means the wine has acquired an oaky profile, showing a spicy, toasty and smoky nose, while keeping a core of white fruit and flower aromas, a hint of fennel and pollen. It has contained ripeness and low alcohol—this year, it's only 12.02% (in 2023 it was 13%)—with a pH of 3.1 and 7.6 grams of acidity. It's light, fresh and vibrant with a chalky finish, tasty, fresh and balanced, with more complexity than you expect in a young white. 6,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2025.” 92+pts — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate Order here (Link) Tinto II 2017: ‘Muy Buena’ — Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja Hermanos Pecina 2017 Rioja Reserva Offer: $79.00 “Just opaque garnet with the faintest trace of brick appearing on the rim. The 2017 Rioja Reserva from Hermanos Pecina very slowly unfurls a nose of utter classicism: sweet fresh and baked cherry and dried strawberry fruit mingles with nuances of dry earth, unsmoked cigars, mineral salts, orange peel, and dried mint. Around this melange wreathe the hallmarks of the Great Tradition of Rioja, the classical ‘dry cellar’ incense and camphor notes that I find so compelling. There is a sense of depth here that only gradually emerges with time. The palate is beguiling, utterly silken yet with a refreshing finish that arrives with dried citrus peels and toasted acidity; there is a very delicate line of acidity that, too, refreshes. Sweet red fruits including cherry and cranberry, baking spices, earthen nuances, and balsam herbs on the long and ethereally framed finish. Fine!” — David “The 2017 Senorio de P. Pecina Reserva was cropped from a very challenging year in Rioja, and the wine might have a more developed nose and a polished and lighter palate. It does have ripeness—the wine reached 14.64% alcohol with a pH of 3.56 and 6.1 grams of acidity—because the end of the season was warm, and yields were low because of the earlier frost. It matured in used American oak barrels for three years, during which time it was racked every six months. This has an ultra-traditional profile.” 92pts — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate Order here (Link) III 2016: ‘Muy Buena’ — Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja “reminiscent of mature Right Bank Bordeaux!” — Neal Martin, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate Hermanos Pecina 2016 Rioja Gran Reserva Offer: $125.00 “The Gran Reserva is also the same as I tasted last year, the 2016 Senorio de P Pecina Gran Reserva, a textbook example of the category, with a developed nose of forest floor, truffles, tobacco leaves and cigar box, iodine and brick dust with an ashy twist. The fruit is fading and giving way to tertiary notes and more aromatic complexity. It has good ripeness, 14.05% alcohol and good balance, with fine and mostly resolved tannins and a dry, chalky finish. Following the strictest tradition, it matured in used American oak barrels for four years, during which time it was racked every six months.” 93+pts — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate Order here (Link) previously arrived bottlings from Hermanos Pecina ~ generously discounted ~ Hermanos Pecina 2014 Rioja Crianza (MAGNUM) (Shelf Price: $112.00) Order here - $95.00 (Link) “ … a winsome aromatic profile of dried red flowers, incense, and herbs.” — David … Hermanos Pecina “This is an traditional, even ultra-conservative, bodega. The family own vineyards scattered through the villages around Sonsierra. The Bodega owns a collection of several thousand old (10-20y/o) American oak barrels; racking and rotating the wines between these every 6 months. The wines are unfined and unfiltered. Natural, as I see it.” — David A Theory on the Great Tradition of Rioja “I have posited previously to a small audience that traditional Rioja could be parsed into two camps, the Classical and the Orthodox. The Classical, to my mind, is represented by producers upholding the late 19th and early 20th Century tradition of La Rioja Alta. Ferments are slightly faster and the wines are matured in ‘dry’ cellars where there is a small degree of evaporation and a greater degree of oxidation. Consequently the wines take on an ineffably silken texture and posses aromatics redolent of incense. The Orthodox school stems from the winemaking traditions of the middle 19th-Century, as practiced at R. Lopez de Heredia and now Akutain. The ferments are slow and very cold, and the wines are kept in ‘wet’ cellars with high humidty and low oxidation. The resultant wines have earthen and woodsy aromatics, ‘dank’ characters (akin to moss or wet rock), and posses a fuller texture with more tannic heft. Practices are of course common across both strands; Tempranillo led wines with support from Garnacha, Graciano, and Mazuelo, racking every six months, long aging in American oak, and maturation in bottle. Everything is fined with egg whites but nothing is filtered. Feel free to discuss, counter, or agree.” — David … Please join us for a drink soon. Reservations preferred. Bookings and after-6.00pm access: (03) 9419 3867 Tue. 11.00 am–6.00 pm Wed.–Sat. 11.00 am–11.00 pm — If you would like any of the above, would like to come by for a private appointment, or just have some questions — please let us know.