Lopez de Heredia is one of the world’s elite wine estates.  This statement isn’t a surprise to anyone who reads at all about Spanish wines, but it bears repeating.  “Why?” you might ask, “would you tell us something we already know?”

The answer to that question is that for all of the grace, complexity, age-worthiness, and profundity of the wines, the prices are shockingly low.  You can purchase the entry level wine from the greatest traditional Rioja estate for less than $30.  

It’s pretty clear that Vincent Paris is the next “it” winemaker in the Northern Rhone.  Working primarily in Cornas, the wines have everything we love about Northern Rhone Syrah packaged in a clean, direct style.  He has the benefit of incredible vineyard material, too, as he now works the vineyards that his uncle, Robert Michel, made famous.  Stylistically, there’s definitely some of that old-school Michel rusticity, but overall, his wines are far more polished and in line with what we think of as good modern Cornas.