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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 94.2 pts. and median of 94 pts. in 66 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Papies on 5/16/2024 & rated 97 points: A beautiful magnum dug up from the cellar of Rekondo in San Sebastián. Impossible to resist these old beauties from such great provenance.
This was elegance personified and albeit not a soft wine , in a way a Bordeaux would have been, but seamless , effortless beauty just delivered with no fanfare or screams and shouts. Usually a wine we find a bit muscular , but with age like this 1981 all came together and frankly we should have decanted it. This could easily age another 30 years and who knows if it can evolve to become a perfect wine. For us on the day a hands down 97 (31 views) | | | Tasted by NoTrollingerPlease on 4/27/2024: Mystery wine evening (@Private location): *** only for my memory, no detailed note or rating ***
Glass: Spiegelau Definition Bordeaux
Tasted double blind. Cool, fine, elegant, timeless, complex and super long. Wonderful wine! (230 views) | | | Tasted by UPL on 3/21/2024 & rated 99 points: wow wow wow - what a wine - aged Vegas are so beautiful -- it´s unbelievable, but this wine is young - nothing tired - so fresh and rich - bordeaux like - tobacco - leather - cherry - cedar- so much complexity - WOTN (227 views) | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 10/17/2023 & rated 95 points: Vega Sicilia Unico Dinner with Pablo Alvarez (Asador Bastian - Chicago IL): 75/79/81 flight, this wine was the rockstar. So much fresh and dried black cherry and plum with braised meat and absolutely wonderful depth. So seamless and elegant. This got bigger and longer with more time in glass. (502 views) | | | Tasted by Nanda on 10/17/2023 & rated 96 points: Acker Vega Sicilia dinner with Pablo Álvarez (Asador Bastian): 75/79/81. Wow, this is so pure with more brightness and freshness than the 75 or 79 but with similar complexity of herb/spice layered into the strawberry and rhubarb fruit. Early peak and deliciously good. (1094 views) | | | Tasted by KenK on 10/17/2023 & rated 96 points: In the 75, 79, 81 flight I clearly preferred the 1981. Pablo commented that it was a great year for Unico and I felt it really showed. Everything here was amplified vs the very good ‘75 & ‘79. Lovely spiced earthy notes with dried wild red fruit aromas. This came across darker and richer and more completed. A joy to drink and one of the best wines of the evening out of 15 different Unico’s 1953-2014. These wines age so very well and really improve in the bottle. Wow (825 views) | | | Tasted by alittle on 8/28/2023 & rated 99 points: Incredible showing for this wine. Among the best Spanish wines I've ever had. Within context of what it is, I think this is a perfect wine. (598 views) | | | Tasted by Larslatour on 12/27/2022 & rated 92 points: Still fresch after so many years. Amazing. (1105 views) | | | Tasted by beatles on 9/6/2022 & rated 96 points: Really singing, in complete balance and really drinking like a great, mature Bordeaux-wine with tobacco, leather galore.
#El Cellar de Can Rocca #JubileTasting (1790 views) | | | Tasted by MC2 Wines on 3/6/2022: Return to Napa; 3/6/2022-3/13/2022 (Wineries and various restaurants): Sortof like a birth year wine for me at least because it was bottled in my birth year. Wines expected to be a few different vintages from the 60's. This was perhaps not a perfect bottle - there was just a faint hint of stewed. Mostly though dried fruits and maybe a bit floral. Interesting wine and fun to have a second bottle. (2273 views) | | | Tasted by walterb on 10/10/2021 & rated 95 points: Very nicely well balanced and concentrated wine. Tasted leather, smoke, red berries (black currant), oak, tobacco. Became softer in time (drunk wine in 1,5-2 hours), which gave more complexity and concentration. Very nice! (1655 views) | | | Tasted by Nothung on 8/12/2021 & rated 95 points: An amazing wine of incredible finesse and nuance. Opened about two hours before drinking, not decanted. Started fading a bit at the end of the next hour of drinking. (1751 views) | | | Tasted by Elementalvino on 5/8/2021 & rated 97 points: Opened for my wife's 40th birthday at Angler in SF over Mother's Day weekend.
Bottle was double decanted and set aside, with the exception of the initial pour to make sure the wine was not flawed, we did not hit this bottle until about 1-1.5 hrs into the dinner.
Wowza's, I've had a lot of mid-90s to 2000's Unico's and I'm incredibly sad I did sit on some of them longer. The primary and secondary fruits, softened tannins made this just an incredible wine to keep going back to throughout the rest of our dinner.
Thankfully, I have 1 bottle left, and I'll try my hardest to keep it hiding in the cellar for another decade to save for her 50th. (877 views) | | | Tasted by JonnyG on 4/30/2021 & rated 97 points: Unico + BBQ Makes for Quite the Night (Los Olivos, CA): Unquestionably my WOTN, from the first sip to the last. Other bottles in the vertical needed more air and/or developed their best stuff over time, but this was spot-on immediately. Came off as at-peak, with concentrated, Pomerol-like caramelized charry, leather and cedar notes accentuating the berry flavors. Perfect balance, making the complexity of the wine easy to overlook. The unusually heavy component of Bordeaux varieties here really shined. (1597 views) | | | Tasted by G_H on 9/12/2020 & rated 94 points: Quite atypical for an unico it is relatively round and soft with a low level of acidity, well integrated in the background. Dark chocolate and some allspice, this is an Unico for bordeaux drinkers (1686 views) | | | Tasted by NoTrollingerPlease on 11/23/2019 & rated 93 points: Best bottle (@Private location): Glass: Josephinenhütte White/Universal
Popped and poured. Clear, deep tawny-garnet color, quite youthful. Clean, a bit muted nose and note as intense as it could be. Spices, herbs, some fine leather and tobacco. Nice, but not great.
On the palate very lean and almost meagre. Driven by a wonderful racy acidity. Seems very young and still driven by fruit and some herbs. Very few tertiary flavours. Good length. Potential for at least 1-2 decades. Will it improve? I don’t know… 93-94 (2576 views) | | | Tasted by petitblanc on 10/19/2019: Madison Offline 2019; 10/18/2019-10/19/2019: Minimal notes taken. This wine had been opened and recorked 36 hours prior to service. Unusual and not overly pleasant minty notes on the nose. On the palate this was flattish with low acidity, showing prominent tannins and some heat. I didn't take enough time on this wine, but what I did experience was disappointing. Not scored. (1935 views) | | | Tasted by dcwino on 2/3/2019 & rated 93 points: Sommelier Appreciation Dinner 2019 (The Brown Residence): Expressive nose displaying very ripe concentrated red fruit, plum, cherry, tobacco, espresso, leather and scorched earth. Excellent concentration, packed dense ripe red fruit, unctuous, bright acidity, strong earthy mineral and a medium to long ripe red fruit driven finish with espresso and leather at the end. It is a bit out of place in the flight and lacks finesse compare to the Bordeauxs. (3046 views) | | | Tasted by mdefreitas on 10/24/2018 & rated 98 points: Vega Sicilia Unicos (Peppercorn's (Hartford, CT)): One of the wines of the tasting for me. A wine of great depth, with dark fruits, superb concentration, balanced structure and excellent length. A complete wine, Bordeaux-like and long. Again, the balance here is fantastic... one would be hard-pressed to find faults here. (2650 views) | | | Tasted by nihraguk on 10/12/2018: Not particularly impressed. This bottle was closed and did not give up much over the course of a 2-hour dinner. The nose was a little too alcoholic. The body was monolithic, and (surprisingly) still somewhat tannic. (2001 views) | | | Tasted by BradE on 7/28/2018: Corked. (2053 views) | | | Tasted by tcarter on 1/30/2018 & rated 97 points: This was just magnificent. In a perfect drinking window by my estimation. Powerful, full-bodied, well-rounded stuff that still has many years ahead of it. (2504 views) | | | Tasted by daghaug on 10/27/2017: Ungt (!) preg på duft, med litt toakk, bær, litt jord. Jordbær og lær på smak. Frisk og syrlig balanserer kraften. Flott integrerte tanniner. I sammenlikning med Latour og Masseto framstår frukten litt søtlig, men den slår likevel Masseto på friskhet og eleganse. (2288 views) | | | Tasted by Burgnick on 10/25/2017 & rated 91 points: We could have over-decanted this wine. 2 hours was probably too long. The wine dropped in the middle of the dinner. This bottle was on and off throughout the night with quite a muted nose. It is soft and silky with mint and dark/red fruit. The tannins have softened. There are moments where the wine shines. But overall its not the most consistent performer. There are other tasters who like it more than I do tonight. (2102 views) | | | Tasted by Kemo Sabe on 8/30/2017 & rated 95 points: This is the richest wine in the flight (76, 81, 85) by far. Amazing texture to this wine. Supple and very easy to drink. No rough edges whatsoever. Smooth and soft on the palate. Really well integrated and nuanced. Dare I say a baby at 36? Not even close to full maturity. There is upside here. (2173 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Sarah Jane Evans MW
Decanter, Vega Sicilia anniversary tasting (9/6/2022)
(Vega Sicilia, Único, Tempranillo / Tinto Fino, Ribera del Duero, Spain, Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com (9/6/2022)
(Vega Sicilia Ribera del Duero Unico, Spain) Subscribe to see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (9/6/2022)
(Vega Sicilia, Único Ribera del Duero Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Jan/Feb 2020, Issue #85, The Timeless Beauty of Vega Sicilia Único
(Vega Sicilia “Único” (served from magnum)) Login and sign up and see review text. | By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Jan/Feb 2020, Issue #85, The Timeless Beauty of Vega Sicilia Único
(Vega Sicilia “Único”) Login and sign up and see review text. | By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Jul/Aug 2008, Issue #16, (Mostly) Superb Spanish Wines Tasted Recently
(Vega Sicilia Unico (Ribera del Duero)) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, September/October 1998, IWC Issue #80
(Bodegas y Vinedos Vega Sicilia Unico Ribera del Duero) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Decanter and JamesSuckling.com and JancisRobinson.com and View From the Cellar and Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Producer WebsiteTempranillo BlendTempranillo is the backbone of wines made ihvhhcn the best well-known Spanish regions Rioja and Ribera del Duero, but is also grown as far afield as Mexico and Australia.
As a flavor profile, red fruits like strawberries and cherries can predominate - but with a rustic edge. The Many wines made from Tempranillo will spend a few years in barrel and bottle before reaching the consumers . Many Tempranillo-based wines see a few years of oak - add that to a few years of bottle and the wine can give a subtle - and occasionaly not-so-subtle - leathery mouthfeel. The combination of the tart fruit and tannins make this wine very food friendly.Spain Vinos de España - Wines of Spain (Instituto Español de Comercio Exterior) | Wikipedia
Wine Map on weinlagen-info
Spain is the third largest wine producing nation in the world, occupying the majority of the Iberian Peninsula with vast diversity in climate, culture, and of course, wine. From inky, dark reds of the [Priorat] to dry, white Finos from Andalusia, Spain can easily boast of elaborating a wide variety of notable styles. Within Spain there are currently 62 demarcated wine regions, of which a handful have gained international recognition: [Rioja], Priorat and [Ribera del Duero]. Yet these regions are only a small sample of the high quality wines Spain produces. Regions such as Cava, Penedes, Somontano, Galicia, Rueda and Jerez are only a few of the numerous regions worthy of exploration throughout Spain. Spain can also lay claim to having the most land under vine in the world, growing up to, by some accounts, 600 indigenous varietals of which Tempranillo is their most well known. Other popular varietals include [Garnacha], Bobal and Monastrell for reds and for whites; the infamous [sic] Palomino Fino grape which is used in the production of sherry wine, Pedro Ximenez in Montilla Morilles, Albarino used in the creation of the bright, effervescent wines of Galicia, and Verdejo in Rueda. - Source: - Catavino.net
Spain is not in the forefront of winemaking for its dessert wines, other than for its sweet wines from Sherry country including the highly revered Olorosos (when sweetened). But apart from Sherry Spain has a range of styles of dessert wines, ranging from the those made from the Pedro Ximenez grape primarily in Jerez and Montilla-Moriles) to luscious, red dessert wines made in the Mediterranean from the Garnacha (Grenache) grape. Some good Moscatels are made in Mallorca, Alicante and Navarre. The northwest corner of Spain, Galicia, with its bitter Atlantic climate, is even making dessert wines, called “Tostadillos” in the village of Ribadivia (similar to France’s “Vin de Paille”). The Canary Islands have made interesting dessert wines for centuries (they are mentioned by Shakespeare, for example) and in recent years the quality of winemaking has been improved and the Canary Islands wines are being better marketed now. The winemaking styles for “Vinos Dulces” are also diverse, from “Late Harvest” (Vendimia Tardía) to “Fortified Wines” (Fermentación Parcial). Based on in-spain.info.Castilla y León Castilla y León Wine (Turismo Castilla y León )Ribera del Duero El Corazón del Duero - The Heart of Duero (Consejo Regulador de la D.O. Ribera del Duero) |
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