1999 Bodegas y Viñedos Alión Ribera del Duero

Community Tasting Notes (64) Avg Score: 91.3 points

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  9/30/2023 - Juliansi Likes this wine: 92 Points

  My joint-WOTN (along with my Torbreck The Celts 2014) at Mika's birthday party, this is the most aged Alion I have tried... This 24 year old Tempranillo showed plenty of elegance and was full of complexity.
  
  Colour came across as red heading towards dark brown, with a 10mm pale rim. Could this be 20 years old I wondered? I knew it was Old World, and the medium- acidity on the palate led me to Italian. In fact, all of us guessed.. Italian. Or most did anyway, there were 1 or 2 guesses of Bordeaux.
  
  Tannins are medium-, and the acidity seemed to get juicier and perhaps even up to medium by the end of the evening when I savoured the last drop.
  
  Love the remnants of red fruits such as strawberry and cherries, with some blackberry and herbs coming through on the palate too. The oak is so well integrated, and the mouthfeel simply silky. The complexity on the mid-palate including earth and cedar made this all the more special. Drink-up, this is calling out its last hoorah presently!
  
  1999 is rated as "excellent" in the Ribera del Duero region. Grapes were ripe, but there was a slightly rainy harvest period. Thus, whilst most of the reviews recommend a drinking window until 2015, I still found this to be immensely pleasurable today.
  
  I am glad DQ found this at the "back of his cellar" and brought this out for Mika's birthday recently... what a treat, this was still excellent!
  
  Extra Supertanker, Glo
  Damansara, Malaysia
  30 Sept 2023

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  6/27/2021 - Lars1974 Likes this wine: 92 Points

  A wine I've tried 10+ times over the years. Always very good.
  Still smooth as velvet and firm. Ceriieis, tobacco, olives, thyme and coppa. The nose is fantastic. This bottle showed a bit less fruit than before. Variation? On the decline? Got two bottles left and I will not wait long.
  This being said, still a very good wine!

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  8/31/2019 - appel54 Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Tegelröd färg
  
  Mogna jordgubbar, kaffe, läder, ekat, té (rött), balsamträ, nyponsoppa, lavendel
  
  Torr, stram, en viss syra, härlig längd
  
  Grymt vin!

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  8/31/2019 - karl.1480 Likes this wine: 94 Points

  BYOB with a couple of friends; 8/31/2019-9/1/2019 (Gothenburg): Tasted blind.
  Medium intensity, ruby color.
  
  Complex and expressive nose showing sun ripe strawberry, blackberry, cherry liqueur, garrigue herbs, raw meat and asian spice. Some floral overtones and a bit of toasty oak.
  
  Full bodied with bright acidity and silky tannins. Complex and intensive with a very pure feel to the fruit. There's layers upon layers of savory spice, raw meat, bright florals, earthy sous bois, well-balanced oak and sun ripe fruit. Really long finish with a little bit of warmth from the alcohol but now I'm just being picky.
  
  This wine is in a great place right now but probably in the beginning of it's drinking window cause I can't pick up any tertiary notes. The sun ripe feel to the fruit along with meat and garrigue led me directly to southern Rhône. The oak made me a bit doubtful but I called this Châteauneuf-du-Pape somewhere around 2010.
  
  Great wine.

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  2/23/2018 - StasMedvedev.lv Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Opened 2 hours in advance and poured in carafe.
  
  Purplish color with brick rim. Good intensity of aromas. Fruits are on a jammy candied side. Aromas of dried black plum. Somewhat herbal greenish. Mellow, silky, round on the palate.
  
  This wine was my discovery of the night. Odd rainy '99 that was not promising in theory showed how beautifully Alion can mature. Wow! Elegant wine! Tertiary aromas will further develop.
  Alion finally convinced me why it is priced fairly close to V°5.
  
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