January 1, 2024 - 2024 New Year's Day Double Blind Tasting: Tasted blind. I really enjoyed this wine, but could not tell where it was from both because it was not from a region I was expecting and my palate was tired. I would have liked to have revisited this wine again.
December 24, 2023 - Christmas eve 2023. Had with family over grilled Lamb chop dinner. Opened 1 hour before dinner and decanted. Again, there was no sediment. The sediment myst have fallen out in the barrels before blending. Vintages were 94 (which was amazing), ‘99 (which is too early to tell) and 2000 (which I am less excited about).
The smell is very youthful and dominated by mild blackberry and blueberry. I don’t smell bacon or lardons, but is a slight hint of smoked meat or possibly blood. The color is medium garnet the taste is clean and clear. Enters with strong blueberry, blackberry and blood orange. The mid palate is warm cranberry sauce, umami and soy. It finishes on the bright side with more of the blood orange and a long silky finish.
Simply Amazing Wine!
December 3, 2023 - Seared ribeyes..... Spectacular wine that delivered beautifully. Definitely ready with well integrated tannins but this can easily last another 5-7 years. Solid and as one would expect
June 19, 2022 - Slow decant over 1.5 hours. Once open quite musigny-like. Superb and well integrated now.
August 28, 2021 - Damn, amazingly detailed. smells of lardon, wet tar, sweet berries, vanilla and strawberry jam. Explodes into the mouth with bluberries, strawberries, rhubarb and orange peel. Tar, pine needles, soy hit the mid palete and it leaves you a long aftertatse of vanilla fading to dried strawberries. Not so serious, but well aware of its attractiveness. Appropriate and playfull in the end. A seriosly elegant wine. Leaves you eanting more. Will only get better as the vanilla integrates and creates tetiary flavors.
May 28, 2020 - Coronavirus Denial; 3/1/2020-5/31/2020: Very promising red fruited woody nose on opening, but on the palate this was a bit watery, and the obtrusively hot alcohol never went away. Disappointing. Pristine bottle. 14% abv
January 12, 2020 - Decanted for 60 mins before serving. Vanilla oak, dark currant, violets, and mocha. Not fully opened up tonight but it still showed the vega elegance snd regalness on the palate. It probably needs a proper 2 hour decant. My last bottle. Purchased from Seville 6 years ago.
December 15, 2019 - WOW nose of roasted bacon, ripe strawberries, cedar box, BBQ roasted meat... Fabulous taste super sily tannins, ripe strawberries, forest floor, lenght of 60 sec, one of the best Vega Sicilia tasted!!
August 27, 2019 - This was actually lot 0196. A very elegant wine. Nose of black currents, licorice, leather. Most elegant mouthfeel and civilized, moderately long finish. A pleasure to drink, very refined at this stage. Best to pop and pour as there is minimal sediment and it loses its charm by the next day.
June 27, 2019 - A few favourites with coq au vin (Chicago, IL): This is my first time trying the Especial, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get out of the multivintage thing. Nonetheless, the wine is classic Unico (even if I'm not sure that it's greater than the sum of its parts). There's so much American oak here, with a big vanilla dill thing on the nose, followed by some black cherries and other very sweet black fruit. This is a hedonistic wine if there ever was one, but it's just so well done and there's none of the bitter oaky astringency that mars other so-called hedonistic wines. Even though this is very young for Unico, this is a very enjoyable bottle already.