Condado de Haza Ribera del Duero 2004

The 2004 Condado de Haza is another unequivocal success from one of Ribera del Duero's finest properties. It reflects in every detail the bold and brilliant winemaking style of Alejandro Fernandez. The wine is a deep saturated purple in color, and it exhibits an amplifying nose of crushed blackberries, cedar, currant, tobacco, and more. It, also, possesses a rich, textured feel in the mouth to buoy its ripe, young tannins. Sophisticated and full-bodied, the 2004 Condado de Haza is a benchmark wine for Tempranillo as well as the esteemed Ribera del Duero appellation. Aged 15 months in oak barriques, this elegant but intense wine offers plenty of pleasure now, but it will continue to improve in bottle for at least several more years and then drink well for a decade or more. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2015. For optimal enjoyment, an hour or more of aeration is recommended prior to serving.

World class wine such as the 2004 Condado de Haza deserves culinary accompaniments of equal stature. Consequently, we suggest serving this brilliant, age worthy red with the finest cuts of beef, pork, or lamb. In a traditional vein, we recommend Veal with Black Olives as well as Duck served Spanish style in a pungent, roasted garlic sauce, with sliced stuffed olives and assorted vegetables. Heady cheeses also provide excellent partners to the 2004 Condado de Haza, as both the wine and cheese complement one another and supply a fine finale to a special meal or dinner party, too. However, almost any noble fare will be enhanced by this regal red, so enjoy!

Condado de Haza is one of several great bodegas that are owned and run by the legendary Alejandro Fernandez. Alejandro Fernandez personifies the mercurial 20th century Spanish experience. A family breadwinner from the age of thirteen, he has been a soldier, salesman, and master carpenter. After military service, he began working for an agricultural equipment firm, where he attained national success with the development of a revolutionary beet harvester. While toiling on the land with farmers and equipment he harvested yearly his own grapes and made his own wine, and he dreamed of the day he would establish his own commercial bodega for the production of Spain's greatest red wine. In 1972, at a time when most growers in the Ribera del Duero were pulling up vines in favor of more lucrative crops, Alejandro and his wife, Esperanza, licensed Pesquera, their now famous Ribera del Duero bodega, which is lodged in a 16th century logar and press house. Today, Alejandro Fernandez is acknowledged as the unrivaled master of Spain's greatest grape variety – Tempranillo. He has accomplished this feat by the selection of the ideal soils for the temperamental Tempranillo, great innovation in the cellar as well as in the vineyard, and an uncompromising desire to produce the best red wine in Spain. Condado de Haza was begun in 1989 as a sister project to Pesquera. It is named after a historic medieval village that sits upon a hill nearby. The vineyard Condado de Haza sits upon a south facing slope that runs for a solid kilometer along the Duero River. It has been called the greatest Tempranillo vineyard in all Spain. Its wine is bottled after spending 15 months in oak barrels, and like Pesquera it can be enjoyed early or cellared for up to 15 years or more, as Alejandro Fernandez's two greatest wines have a propensity for graceful aging and improving greatly with time in the bottle.