My heart dropped.

I had opened the López de Heredia – Viña Tondonia Rioja Reserva 2008 for a dinner with some German guests and was hoping it may still be in a drinking window.

It wasn’t even close. The 2008 had died – it was lifeless with no aroma or flavour.

Luckily, I had a bottle of the same wine from 2011 waiting in the wings and thankfully, it had plenty of life in it yet.

On the eyes, it was a translucent shade of ruby with developed aromas of dried strawberry and preserved red plum. The palate showed more dried and super ripe red and purple plums and strawberries, alongside nutmeg and cinnamon with sweet cured leather glove.

Let this be a lesson to all ye who, like me, forget to track and drink on time! Seriously – it’s embarrassing. Invest in some software already! The excel spreadsheet is no longer doing the job.

We opened and enjoyed this with bbq’d ribs and fresh garden salad in April 2026 (15 years old). If you’re holding, get going and drop me a line in the comments if you use tracking software or an app you think I should know about.