Isaac Fernández, Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León, Spain) 2014

I’ve already reviewed this wine, but here’s another take on it—just after showed it again to 60+ tasters working “blind” in a Zoom-based class on Ribera del Duero.  Although there’s never unanimity in that sort of setting, this was the top scoring wine of the night based on precise scorekeeping by means of Zoom’s “poll” function.  That’s very impressive in view of the fact that two of the wines carried price tags of $85, but even more impressive in light of the fact that this 2014 vintage is the first-ever release of this wine.  In fairness, it benefitted from 4 years of additional bottle age by comparison to those two $85 wines from 2018, but bottle age doesn’t help every wine equally, so don’t make too much of that.  My clear impression from both of my encounters with this wine is that is exemplary in its intricacy, with many interesting details in the different tones displayed by its fruit as well as its wood influence and its bottle bouquet.  And yet, that’s not its most impressive attribute, which is the remarkable proportionality of all these sensory signals, which present themselves in near-perfect symmetry and in such a harmonious-seeming sequence that all the aroma, flavor, and finish impressions flow naturally and beautifully from one another.  As an aside, I thought even more highly of the 2015 vintage when first tasting the two side-by-side, so this is undoubtedly a new star in the Spanish firmament.