Vega Sicilia Unico 2013

James Suckling
This has a polished and complex nose of poached plums, dark cherries, tea leaves, graphite, milk chocolate and a touch of caramel. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm yet creamy tannins. Caressing, seductive and ripe, but with underlying freshness. 97% tempranillo and 3% cabernet sauvignon. Tasted from magnum. The normal bottle will be released 2023 and the magnum in 2025. Try after 2023.

Robert Parker
I had already tasted the 2013 Único from magnum in a vertical tasting of all the magnums ever produced and was quite impressed by it (and the still unreleased 2014 that should be available in 2024). 2013 saw a rainy harvest, and the wine is subtle, elegant and fresh, complex, silky and with precision. The wine matured in 225-liter barrels in an initial phase and then in 22,000-liter oak vats until it was bottled in June 2019. This year, the final blend was 97% Tinto Fino and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon with a little less alcohol, 14%, and a pH of 3.78 and 5.2 grams of acidity, fresh and balanced, more elegant and subtler. Único often transcends the character of the vintage and doesn't follow the norm in the region, and the 2013 is a good example of that. It was a very rainy and complicated vintage; they harvested quite quickly to avoid botrytis, and while other people waited for concentration, they did not, and their approach clearly paid back. It's aromatic and floral, less dense than the 2012, subtler, more expressive and more elegant. It's clean and fresh, tasty, with very fine tannins. It's a big surprise for the vintage and one of the finest Únicos in the last few years. 76,476 bottles, 3,658 magnums and some larger formats produced, the shortest crop since 2009.

Bodegas Vega Sicilia er Spaniens svar på en Grand Cru og landets mest prestigefyldte vinhus. Vingården ligger i Ribera del Duero hvor Eloy Lacanda y Chaves plantede Bordeaux druerne Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot og Malbec side om side med den lokale Tempranillo i 1864. Vega Sicilias kultstatus begyndte dog først i starten af det 20. århundrede under ejerskab af Antonio Herrero. Siden da har vingården skiftet ejere flere gange indtil det endelig faldt i hænderne på de nuværende ejere; Alvarez familien i 1982. Opskriften på vinenes succes findes bl.a. i et nærmest hysterisk fokus på kvalitet der starter med uhyre lave høstudbytter, grøn høst og en ekstrem hård udvælgelse af druer under høsten – kun det bedste er godt nok. Vega Sicilia er især berømt for kultvinene Único, Único Reserva Especial og Valbuena 5.