Tasting Notes
The bedrock is schistous: the same rock that underlies the Port vineyards of the Douro further downstream. The topsoil is chalk-based, very pale and quite sandy.
With time in the glass the Único opened up and got closer to the character of Valbuena but with more depth and clout, while showing extremely elegant. It takes some time to unfurl its aromatic palette, and it feels young and somewhat undeveloped, younger than it is. Very polished tannins and a soft mouthfeel that provides elegance. This is a wine that ages for no less than ten years before it’s released. It should develop nicely in bottle. 74,274 bottles, 3,390 magnums, 209 double magnums and 22 imperials were produced.
Robert Parker 98 Points
James Suckling 98 Points
About Vega Sicilia
The foundations of Vega Sicilia’s traditions may be found as far back as 1859, when Don Eloy Lecanda Chaves was gifted an estate by his wealthy father. The origins of the Vega Sicilia winery are officially regarded as 1864, which was when Don Eloy Lecanda Chaves returned from his travels in Bordeaux with vine cuttings, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Carmenere – all of which were found in Bordeaux at that time – and, curiously, some Pinot Noir. Regardless of how Pinot Noir arrived, the cuttings were duly propagated and planted at Vega Sicilia, although the Carmenere and Pinot Noir are no longer found in the Vega Sicilia vineyards.
Vega Sicilia’s Tempranillo is trained in gobelet fashion, whereas the French varieties are trained in a Guyot system. Green harvesting is employed ruthlessly in order to control yields, and the harvest itself is meticulous. In the winery, such a massive wine will withstand many years in wood and Unico sees a complicated series of rackings from huge barrels to new oak, to used American oak, back to new oak again, and on it goes. Whatever these phases are called, Unico certainly receives very prolonged barrel ageing, with the 1970 seeing over sixteen years! And yet these are not washed out, stretched, overly oaky wines when mature, testimony to the quality of the raw materials on which they are based.
When Vega Sicilia became part of the Álvarez family’s life in 1982, the foundations were laid for TEMPOS Vega Sicilia. It has constantly and steadily grown since then, involving the introduction of wines produced in different wine-making areas, reaching out to new consumers around the world and laying the foundations for a promising and highly successful future.
