Mmmm....Pesquera

[magnolia]

Was fortunate enough to participate in an unprecedented tasting of Alejandro Fernandez's wines earlier this week - he's best known for Pesquera - unprecendented because the 71-year old winemaker hasn't been to London in 20 years (he says he's been too busy). Fernandez has been making wine in the Ribera del Duero for 20 something years, though his family has been in the ag business for far longer. He now makes his wine from four different properties - El Vinculo; Condado de Haza; Pesquera del Duero; and Dehesa la Granja - he owns all except El Vinculo - he says it's too far from the others for him to keep a constant eye on, but he buys their grapes. Each of his four daughters 'manages' some aspect of the business, nominally each is in charge of one of the properties.

Alejandro makes tempranillo, tempranillo, tempranillo. (He also makes a white wine for his own consumption only). He uses American oak. Some of it is outstanding. All of it is affordable, when you can find it - under £15 a bottle, though UK allocation isn't huge - there are loads of stockists, so maybe they each get a few cases.

We tasted the following:

El Vinculo Crianza 2001; Dehesa la Granja 2000; Condado de Haza Crianza 2001; Pesquera Crianza 2001; Pesquera Reserva 1991 and 89; Pesquera Gran Reserva 1986; Pesquera 1978 and a Janus '94.

The last great year for this region was '94, and this was also the last time Fernandez made his 'icon wine' "Janus", so-called because Fernandez considers it a wine that has one face in the old world, and one in the new. He thinks he's going to make a Janus from the 2003 harvest as well.

It has become quite the mantra for Spanish winemakers to insist that their wines are "organic" without being "certified organic" - i.e. that the weather and other conditions are so perfect that they don't need to use any artificial intervention, that it has always been this way so they've never made a thing out of it, and haven't bothered to apply for certification, yadda yadda yadda. I don't mind one way or another, but organic can be a marketing advantage, so it's just something they all say nowadays.

The wines are very well made, good structure, ample acidity and excellent fruit. Of the ones that show a lot of oak, some of the other tasters considered them 'over-oaked' - but I like some powerful oak as long as it doesn't overwhelm the fruit, tempranillo is a grape that can stand up to oak - and in this case I thought they worked.

The older vintages were surprisingly fresh and showed very little colour change or aged character - they were all deep ruby to garnet, and almost opaque(I noticed something similar at a tasting of old Brunellos about a month ago, they tasted quite young - but not too young to drink - however the colour of the Brunellos had actually gotten lighter over the years!)

Without going too deeply into the tasting notes, all had luscious dark summer puddingy fruit flavours, decent tannins (some a bit chewy for my taste but others, more experienced with Spanish wines than I thought this was appropriate) and streaks of licorice and tobacco. All were imminently drinkable and could probably keep. The ones I'd take home : the Reservas were outstanding, as was the Janus '94 which I'd had before. The Dehesa la Granja 2000 and the Vinculo Crianza were also lovely.

Anyone have any experience with these?

[Phil Ward]

<<Anyone have any experience with these? >>

Yep, lucky to have multiple vinatges in my cellar and love all of them. Alejandro is a remarkable person and I miss selling his wines now that I no longer work for his NJ/NY distributor.

Phil

[docsconz]

I love his wines. I first got turned on to Pesquera with the 90 and 91 vintages by a small shop in North Carolina. They were and still are a great deal and value, although the prices in the US have increased a bit. The '94 Janus is special. He has another wine, very expensive, the name of which eludesme at the moment...

[babyluck]

I just got into these wines recently as a '00 Ribera del Duero was recommended in the January issue of Bon Appetit as a complement to the Catalan braised chicken meal. I have tried both the Condado de Haza & Pesquera multiple times as I love the meal and the wine. Still haven't decided which one goes better but they both go down easy.

As a relative novice I like to get specific pairing suggestions but at the same time feel like I'm missing out on some flexibility. Can anyone tell me why the 2000 was suggested especially? Is it just because it's on the market now, or do my stores offer it because it was a good year, or because it's the time to drink it?

Would love to know more about these delicious wines.

[Michael Laiskonis]

I've always been a huge Fernandez fan, and especially love the Dehesa la Granja; its price point is just low enough to squeak into the realm of 'everyday' (well, once or twice a week!) wines for me. Big question I have is about Zamora in general... little has been written about the area, and I get the impression that Fernandez is on the leading edge of bigger things coming from there... true? In the coming years will we see a boom of younger winemakers following his lead? And what I hear is that neighboring Toro, as well, seems to be on the cusp of something big... I know the Numanthia-Termes- anything else of interest emerging there?

[Craig Camp]

Here is a lot more information on these excellent wines:

Dehesa La Granja

Bodegas Condado de Haza s.l.,

Pesquera de Duero

El Vinculo

[docsconz]

Here is a lot more information on these excellent wines:

Pesquera de Duero

I especially love the quote from our own vserna

"Alejandro Fernández has been so successful in demonstrating the full dimension of varietal Tempranillo from the Ribera that everyone is now imitating him...."