Bodegas Alejandro Fernández Ribera del Duero Reserva Especial Pesquera

Corked

1985 vintage

Light cherry red with clear edge. Refined leafy bouquet - palate is a soft and velvety, perfectly balanced mix of refined light red fruit, light oak and long elegant finish.

1985 vintage

Shared with us by our friend Scott. This opened with dusty red fruit, with notes of dark cherry and blackberry, transitioning to notes of leather, oak, and herbs. Nice tannic structure and decent acidity. This was a wonderful treat.

1985 vintage

Medium depth cherry red with clear miniscus. Elegant, mature bouquet of red cherry and damsons. Palate is well balanced, mature, dried red fruit, light tannins and stylish acidity, dry elegant finish.

1985 vintage

A Wednesday at Dave's place : [Tasted Double Blind] This pours medium garnet with very light bricking. The nose is incredible from first pop to the final pour showing dried strawberry, dried cherry, seaweed, pickle brine, animal fur, wood ash, cigar smoke and decaying rose petals. The palate is bright entering on strawberry, still showing a fair bit of structure despite the age. Tannin is medium and acid is medium plus. The finish lingers nicely with lovely saline, red fruit, …

1985 vintage

medium depth cherry red with clear/tawny meniscus. Bouquet is a lovely mix of dried fruit, sun dried tomatoes and banana skin. Palate is mature, elegant and stylish mix of dried cranberry, vanilla and cinnamon. There's a lengthy aftertaste of leather, dried fruit and velvety tannins with lovely acidity.

1985 vintage

Beautifully smooth and integrated. Cherry, great mouth feel. A pleasure to drink after so many years.

1985 vintage

Medium cherry red with clear rim, more like a 10yo wine. Rich, mature fruit and vanilla bouquet with hints of damson jam and oriental spice. Palate is elegant, well balanced mix of red fruit, mushroom and violets. Lovely wine - now at a peak I guess.

1985 vintage

decanted. took a good hour to show itself. pale, earthy spice notes, some sour cherry, decent fruit, but pale. DRINK UP for sure.

1985 vintage

Clear medium red with clear edges. Great old wine nose. Funky, earthy red fruit and herb nose, improves in the glass over an hour or so. Dry red fruit and meat flavours and a long but resolved finish.

1985 vintage

Detailed tasting note: deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelish.

1985 vintage

Tasted blind. Mature, some caramel American oak that actually smells pretty good (probably because of age/integration). Cherry amaretto, steamy minerals. The tannins are still very present, but likeable. Very good with food.

1985 vintage

Wow, still drinking impressively well. Though the wine is obviously quite mature, it shows no oxidation or any significant decline. Sweet plummy fruit, a little meaty, rusty character, and juicy acidity hold it all together. Nice bottle!

1985 vintage

Back in the day when the illustrious Alejandro Fernandez first made this wine (only his second vintage I believe, at least under this label) he was considered a rising superstar and someone to pay attention to. He quickly established himself over the next few vintages and then did what everyone else does - begin to bifurcate. We start with good/better/best. Then we move on to decent/good/a little better/better/best/special. After that comes not so good really/decent/good/better than good but not as …

1985 vintage

Auction purchase. Absolute mess of a depressed, soaked through cork. Wine was OK. Good color, fully mature. OK.

1985 vintage

Classy, fully mature and voted best wine of the evening in a tasting of 1985's

1985 vintage

A very curious bottle this one. Double decanted and left before taking to friends in the original bottle. On re-opening it had developed an assertively corked nose, so was repatriated for cooking. Put in the cellar and then forgotten for 48 hours, I couldn't resist re-trying it. Astonishingly the nose had recovered and this has turned into a pretty good bottle, with as others have remarked time to go (though it is probably just past its peak). Curious indeed but …

1985 vintage

Brick red - orange colour. Lovely bouquet of mature red fruit, sun dried tomatoes and cinnamon. On the palate - mature red cherry, damson and raspberry flavours with gentle acidity and very light tannin, all in perfect balance. This is followed by a lengthy, elegant and stylish finish. Lovely wine - maybe just beyond it's peak but still with a few years left in it.

1985 vintage

This wine is drinking beautifully now and it evolved well over a 90 minute dinner. Nose of lavender, rosemary & saddle leather. Long mature taste of crushed red fruit, smoked meat and spices.

1985 vintage

Cork wet through on opening. Thought it might have been past it but was wrong, thankfully. This was a lovely bottle of wine. On the nose it had the aromas associated with old Rioja. But old Tempranillo is old Tempranillo! Good mouthfeel and while certainly beginning a downward curve was not dried out or thin. The most 'classical' Ribera I've ever tasted. I'm not sure that, given time, that the fruity new oak riberas will ever develop into this but …

1985 vintage

Dinner @ R&Y (R&Y) : Blind. Mid to faded garnet, pale orange at the rim. Classic old Rioja nose of gentle spice, orange peel and old leather puts me in Rioja straight away, though this turns out to be close, but not close enough. Fresh, clean acidity, light red fruit with oranges and cloves through the mid-palate to a delicate and lingering finish that lacks some of the depth and persistence I imagine it once had. Very good indeed, but …

1985 vintage

Tasted at the Viva Espana tasting. The joy has gone out of this bottle. Old, tired, dry, this did not evolve into anything special.

1985 vintage

Top shoulder level and 100 % wet cork. Surprisingly red color, only slightly brown. Very mature and nice on the nose. Has lost fruit compared to the previous I had about five years ago. Some woody tannins in the finish. On the decline, and luckily the last bottle.

1985 vintage

Berry fruits on the nose, firm tannins, good acid. A bit clipped on the finish but nice.

1985 vintage

Cork disintegrated on opening. Reasonable amount of dry gunk on the cork and foil too, which didn't auger well for the wine inside. However, on decanting through an unbleached coffee filter to remove the cork particles, the wine appeared as clear as a bell, a very light ruby red with just a hint of brick. Cherry, cedar and some smoke on the nose. Palate showed a surprising amount of fruit with sour cherry, plum and a hint of cocoa. Really …

1985 vintage

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Bodegas Alejandro Fernández Ribera del Duero Reserva Especial Pesquera

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