1990 Bodegas Alejandro Fernández Ribera del Duero Tinto Pesquera

Community Tasting Notes (13) Avg Score: 89.1 points

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  12/26/2022 - SpenceP wrote: 89 Points

  Revisiting this wine almost a year later. Fragile cork. Immediately after opening, there are lovely smells of poached black plums, cocoa, and herbs (rosemary?), but in the mouth the wine is unpleasantly austere. Then, after about 10 minutes in the glass, both the nose and the mouth shift toward tobacco with a faint hint of raspberry, along with herbs (thyme?) and a pleasant medium-long aftertaste with a distinct bitter note. This wine is probably near the end of its life, and certainly past its peak, but it's still enjoyable. (Tasted from several glasses, this wine was distinctly at its best from the Jancis Robinson glass. The bottle was given a full two weeks upright before opening to allow the sediment to settle.)

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  1/29/2022 - SpenceP wrote: 84 Points

  A second bottle, from the same case and with the same history as the bottle of 1/27, was surprisingly different: Bland and gentle, nothing objectionable but with only the slightest complexity or interest. Mild tobacco, tart cherries, and little beyond that. Unlike the bottle of two evenings ago, this one had no discernible tannin. I suspect the difference was due to some subtle difference in the corks, but there was no obvious explanation. This reinforces my feeling that, if you have this in your cellar, the sooner you finish these bottles the better.

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  1/27/2022 - SpenceP wrote: 90 Points

  Immediately after opening the bottle, this wine was dominated by autumn forest smells and flavors. Over the next half hour in the glass, that gradually faded and was replaced by leather, tobacco, black plums, coffee, and blackstrap molasses, with a brief brief flash of mint. Long aftertaste. After more than three decades, this is still an enjoyable wine, and will probably continue to be so for at least another year. But if you have this in your cellar, the sooner you finish it the better. I gave this bottle 12 days upright before opening, to allow the sediment to settle out. (The cork was quite fragile--used The Durand.)

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  7/4/2021 - dbkitc wrote: 87 Points

  A mature garnet / ruby color does not show its age. The nose shows underripe fruit and iron. Some cassis, some tobacco may point me to lean Bordeaux. The palate delivers with mature fruit and good flavor depth. Past it’s prime for sure, the finish is a touch lean and acidic. A feeling of ink/blood gives it enough heft in the mid palate to make it ok with dinner. Not great - should have been drunk ten years ago. Drink immediately if you have some cellared. (87?)

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  6/7/2021 - SpenceP wrote: 90 Points

  (See my note from January 30, 2020) The previous times I had this wine, I gave it two or three days upright for the sediment to settle. This time I gave it a full week, and it made a huge difference, not to the objective score, but to the enjoyability of the wine. (And a full week seems to be enough for this one--no need to try two weeks if your bottles are like mine.) Unlike the two previous tastings, there was no bitterness at all. Blueberries, cherries, roses, mint, and very faint hints of licorice, tar, and leather. A surprisingly long aftertaste--simply a fade of what was already there, nothing new emerging. It's really amazing that there's still so much fruit given that this wine was never intended for longterm aging. When the sediment was mixed in with the wine, it had more complexity--but since that complexity included some rather unpleasant components, I'm happy to drink this simpler sediment-free version. Definitely a wine that should be finished as soon as possible, but it's probably healthy for a few more years. The cork of this bottle was in normal shape for a bottle this old--the previous bottles (from the same case and with identical storage) had corks that were dismayingly bad. This, as well as the sediment, may have been a factor in my reactions.

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