WTN: 2000 Tondonia (but more about damned UK snow)

Betsy planned to make dinner last night, but ended up spending hours on hold on 3 different phone lines. David made it out of Edinburgh Sat AM, then spent the day at Heathrow as they closed down. When it became clear flight would be cancelled, he talked to Betsy who used Orbitz to book a hotel about 20 minutes away . Then Betsy spent 2 hours on hold (Pachabel Canon entire time) with Orbitz flight. Luckily, on another line she got through to Continental directly, and after 45+ minutes at least got Dave booked for 12/23. So then Dave used last cash he had (London cabs don't take cards) to get to the hotel. About 11:20 PM (6:20 here) he calls to say they have no room. Betsy calls hotel, they say they have no reservation (no matter what our confirmation says), and have been sold out all day. Luckily, he contacted a friend who had a hotel room in London in preparation to flying home to Peru and was able to crash there Anyway, we resorted to takeout Indian last night- lamb curry, sambar, chicken tikka masala, paneer/paratha roll. OK, venting over.

Not exactly red friendly, but I felt like opening the 2000 Lopez de Heredia "Tondonia" Rioja Reserva. Quite tight, but there is red fruit, baking spices, a little green dilly thing. Medium bodied, well-balanced, I think this has some growth potential. With some time I thought I got some pruney notes, but tonight the remainder seems to retain fresh red fruit. Red plums, cranberry, cherry, spice, vanilla. B+

Hard to enjoy meal last night while worried (ok, so he's 22, but still you worry). Now he and friend have been invited to an apartment for couple of nights, both are booked for 23rd, can share a hotel room for their last night. He's not happy to be with girlfriend, but at least there's a plan, so I say now enjoy London for 3 days.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. 

Yikes - hope things work out well for Dave & he's able to make it in time for Christmas.

Unfortunate to hear about the weather chaos in the UK. As usual over there, they are never able to handle a few cms of snow! No emails please.

I like the '99 Tondonia Reserva more than the '00 myself, though the latter is ok per se. Nice with a simple grilled meat dish. I have a shipment of '01 Tondonia Reserva coming in within the week. I'm curious how that will be at this point.

Thanks for the notes!

Best,

N

so glad I got out of there a couple of weeks ago! Would have been very difficult to come home during the holidays if I was still there.

Intrigued by "not happy to be with girfriend."

Less intriguing to know it's just me typing too fast, I meant "not happy to not be with girlfriend"
He's booked for Th, but they say still are at 30% capacity.
Meanwhile, I've invited an English winegeek for Christmas dinner in case he can't get home in time.

Good luck to him - just flew through Frankfurt yesterday (JFK-FRA-SIN), was heavily backlogged with all the snow. Tons of cancellations/delays, there was a small mass of humanity in front of any Lufthansa counter trying to get on whatever other flights were going out - fortunately the Sing. Airlines flight didn't get held up; got in an hour late and flew out an hour late. Whew.