If you love your reds toasty, spicy, and ripe, you need some Federico in your life! This traditionally-styled Spanish red is 100% Tempranillo, aged 12 months in American oak, and it's a wonderful taste of Spain's Ribera del Duero region.
Federico Fernandez's brother Alejandro gets all of the attention. He's the guy who manages Pesquera and Condado de Haza, two of the most legendary estates of the Ribera del Duero region. Great wines for sure, but you'd pay 2-3x the price, and I swear to you that the quality is higher in this wine.
I just write it up like I taste it, but I've been doing this for almost 30 years now.
2022 Bodegas Federico Ribera del Duero Roble
Ripe, rich, and toasty Tempranillo at a ridiculously low price!
I'm a sucker for Old World classics like this one. Yeah, it's quite toasty and barrel-influenced, not always my favorite flavor components, but there's a ripeness, richness, and purity of fruit at play here, and I quite like that. It all balances out into a wine that will be a hit for those who love ripe, barrel-aged reds.
Based in the village of Pesquera de Duero, Federico and his wife Celia have been growing and crafting true and traditional Ribera del Duero wines since 1986. Located on the northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, this high and dry zone has a stellar reputation for producing fuller, richer, and more structured Tempranillos.
The couple work intuitively and by-hand, farming their old, organic, dry-farmed bush vines with great pride. These 50-year-old vines get blasted with sunshine during the day, when temperatures can rise to 100 degrees, but the temps cool down big time at night. This might sound extreme because it is extreme, but you have to know that vines thrive where few other crops do....
The hot days and cool nights of Ribera del Duero give us Tempranillo with full ripeness and density of flavor, but there's still freshness alive in this wine. That ripeness, in the form of warm blueberry, blackberry, and black cherry melds perfectly with the spicy and vanilla-accented oak flavors. This is not a shy wine, it's boldly flavored with generous texture and a long finish.
Drinking great now and ideal for grilled meats, especially lamb, it will continue to drink well through 2030, perhaps even longer.
