Pesquera wine tasting held in Beijing

Pesquera Group, the wine king of Spain, held a wine tasting in Beijing on June 20.

La Pesquera, in 1972, Alejandro Fernandez and wife Esperanza licensed their bodega in Pesquera. This was well before Ribera del Duero was a well-known region for quality wines. The 16th-century lagar and press house serving as grape receiving and processing through the 1982 harvest. (His machine shop which ceased business in 1985 still serves as the source for stainless tanks and countless other items for vineyard and bodega.) The barriques are a mix of American, Spanish and French oak, custom-cured and made by Spain's finest coopers. Alejandro developed and expanded vineyards, his Vi?a Alta in 1972, the area's first to be wire-trained. A current total of over 500 acres of mature vineyard is spread out over a variety of terroirs. Wines produced by Alejandro Fernández are made exclusively from the difficult, quick-maturing Tempranillo variety, of which he is considered a master. His world-famous Tinto Pesquera is aged a minimum of 18 months in oak, with selected Reservas and Grandes Reservas remaining in barrel for 24 months and longer. Other excellent wines by Alejandro Fernandez include Condado de Haza, Dehesa la Granja (In Zamora, near Toro) and El Vinculo (In Ciudad Real, la Mancha).

"Carrying on a tradition which dates back to the eleventh century, when the first vines were planted in the region, Alejandro Fernandez's vineyard comprises 70 hectares of vines along the banks of the river Duero. A harsh proud and powerful region which reveres wine and the vine it comes from. The Monasterio de la Vid (Monastery of the Vine) and the Monastery of Santa Maria Valbuena are clear proof of the almost mystical associations wine has in the area." -Wine Spectator Magazine