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SPAIN: Table Wines
ALEJANDRO FERNANDEZ~PESQUERA
Pesquera is the name of the town where you'll find this fabulous, famous
winery. 
We met Alejandro Fernandez back in the late 1970s, tasting an
extraordinary Spanish wine of his "Pesquera" label. Prior
to this, the most extraordinary Spanish wines were produced by the storied
Vega Sicilia winery as well as the Torres family in the Penedès region on
Spain's east coast. I'd tasted Vega Sicilia and wondered why people
got so excited over nail-polish remover costing more than a hundred
dollars a bottle. Torres made a superb wine called "Gran
Coronas Black Label" for which they seem to have lost the recipe
(imagine: their 1970 aced out Chateau Latour 1970 in a prestigious tasting
in France which they still talk about today and yet they've drastically
changed the style of the wine).
Along came Fernandez and his unheralded wine called Pesquera. Here
was a guy who was not a "spring chicken" who was starting to
make wine of an extraordinary character. I read that Alejandro was a
carpenter and a bit of a tinkerer, designing and manufacturing some sort
of beet-harvesting machine.
This fellow seemed surprised at being received by the people he was
visiting with such warmth and admiration. I'd be surprised if the
beet farmers around Spain were quite as adoring as wine drinkers who had
discovered his amazing nectar!
Early vintages of Pesquera were phenomenal. Quite different from the
wine made by their competitors at Vega Sicilia, Pesquera was dark in
color, rich in ripe fruit and lavishly-oaked. Despite the obvious
use of significant percentages of new barrels, the wines were not
"woody" tasting. Here was "modern" wine.
Modern by the standards set by the Vega Sicilia neighbors who left wine
for a decade in a barrel. Pesquera was left for 18-24 months in
barrel, much like Bordeaux or top Napa Cabernets.
Recent vintages have been good, but either our taste buds have changed or
competing wineries are making wines in a similar quality neighborhood so
that Pesquera doesn't run away from the field in blind-tasting
comparisons. I suspect the fabulous increase in the quality level of so
many wines from around Spain has something to do with this
impression.
Special bottlings are offered from time to time, Reserva, Grande Reserva
and Janus. These seem to be much in demand around the world, as
collectors have read enough favorable reviews from just about every eno-scribe
on the planet. Combine that demand with the requests from top
restaurants within Spain and you can understand why Pesquera is now a rare
bottle of wine.
 Fernandez
also owns another property which is called Condado de Haza. This
comes from a stretch of land along the Duero river which is
south-facing. This wine is usually a shade lighter than Pesquera,
but often equally interesting. The top wine of the estate is called
Alenza, a combination of ALEjandro and EsperaNZA, his wife.
The first Condado de Haza wines were made at Pesquera, but now there is a
separate winemaking facility to process the fruit from the hundreds of
acres of Tempranillo at this estate.
Currently in stock:
2006 Pesquera $33.99
2007 Pequera Reserva $49.99
Condado de Haza Special order item...
1995 Alenza SALE $79.99
- CELLER
BATEA "VALL MAJOR"
 While
we appreciate some of the trophy wines being made these days in Spain, we
appreciate even more those producers who make affordable wines which are
imminently drinkable.
The Celler Batea provides a good ejemplo of this. The winery
is located in Catalonia's Terra Alta. It was founded back in 1961 in
the southwestern most part of Catalonia.
This is a simple and yet satisfying red wine, being made with Garnacha and
Syrah, though I found some reference to this possibly having a drop of
Tempranillo. The wine shows a nice berryish aroma and there's a
woodsy element, too. It's medium-bodied, smooth and, best of all,
affordable. For less than you'll pay to taste wines at many North
Coast wineries, you can have an entire bottle of something really tasty.
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Currently in stock: 2008 VALL MAJOR $7.99
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DEHESA LA GRANJA
 Alejandro
Fernandez has expanded his wine "empire," branching out from
Ribera del Duero into Zamora. The wines from Castilla y Leon have
great potential and Fernandez, sharp fellow that he is, knows he can make
really good wine in this region. After all, the official regional
name is "Tierra del Vino." You don't have to be Sherlock
Holmes to figure out that one!
So Fernandez buys this place, known as "La Granja Valdeguarea de
los Moleros," having been a bull-raising ranch of the Moleros
brothers.
Well, now the property is raising a "bull" of a different sort.
The Fernandez' recipe seems in evidence here with the first wine of the
winery. Tempranillo. New oak. Big, berryish, woodsy,
cedary oak...wonderful wine, in short. I like it better than a
number of other wines in the Fernandez portfolio, as the oak is clean and
so is the fruit. No funky, meaty notes here.
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Currently in stock: 1999 Dehesa La Granja Sold Out
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EL VNCULO (another Alejandro Fernandez wine!)
 As
I understand it, Alejandro Fernandez had purchased some land near Zamora
and didn't have the "rights" to plant vines there. The EU
has a limitation on vineyards, so you can go somewhere, buy a vineyard or
planting "rights" and tear out a vineyard in Place A so you can
legally plant in Place B.
Fernandez was in La Mancha, attempting to buy the rights to a vineyard
there and he realized La Mancha had great, un-tapped potential. He
ended up buying an abandoned facility and working his "magic"
with Tempranillo.
We have his 2000 "El Vínculo" wine, a showy, mildly cedar,
woodsy rendition of Tempranillo. It's one of the best new wines from
Spain we've encountered this past year. Quite drinkable now, this
displays dark fruit aromas and a cedary, woodsy bouquet. It's smooth
enough to enjoy now and can be cellared a couple of years, if you like.
Ellen, Bob and I all ranked this highly in our Fall 2004 blind-tasting of
Spanish Tempranillo wines. Big wood and you can't mistake it for
anything but Spanish.
The 1999 Reserva is a monster! We tasted it alongside the 1999 Pesquera
Reserva and everyone at the table preferred El V. Dark, deep in
color and showing a fair bit of cedary oak, this is a perfect red for
grilled steaks or lamb. Drinkable now...and how!
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Currently in stock: 2000 EL VÍNCULO Sold
Out
1999 EL VÍNCULO RESERVA Sold Out
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- REMELLURI
 I remember tasting a wine from this producer years ago. It
must have been from around the mid-1970s or so and it was strikingly different from other
Rioja wines. The property, a "granja" (farm) is located at the foot of the
Sierra Cantabria mountains.
The Rodriguez-Salis family is, as I recall, Basque,
rather than Riojana. I remember asking young Telmo Rodriguez about the banks being
closed the day we visited him and he replied that he didn't know because his
"country" was Basque, not Riojano! He has a taste for things French and he
likes the wines of the Rhone Valley, for example. I find his Remelluri wine to have
had a spiciness more similar to southern French reds than the rather oaky notes one typically
encounters in Spain.
 I
had not tasted Remelluri wines for a few years and had the chance to have a
sniff and sip in Europe in March of 2009. I, frankly, did not
recognize the wines they were pouring...these were rustic and quite
"old world" and a far cry from the exciting bottles we had in the
early 2000s...
A few things can be special ordered presently.
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Currently available: BY SPECIAL ORDER:
(bottle orders are okay...takes a couple of days)
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- FEDERICO PATERNINA
 This old firm has
what may be the largest single barrel-storage facility in Europe, housing some 35,000
barricas! And this is only a part of their production. Paternina's wine was a
favorite of Ernest Hemingway. The wines may have been more special in Hemingway's
day, for we have tasted many bottles over the past few years and have found little to be
of interest. I read that there have been some changes in the firm recently, the
company having sold stock and raising a pile of cash in the process. They own a
property in Ribera del Duero, along with a firm in Jerez.
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We recently tasted their entry level wines and found them to be standard
quality.... I'll special order them for you if you like.
- Currently in stock: SPECIAL ORDER ITEMS
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