Vega Sicilia Valbuena 2020

Robert Parker
The 2020 Valbuena is from a year marked by COVID-19 and lots of rain before the harvest, which resulted in a more ethereal wine, with 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.9 and 4.45 grams of acidity. It was produced with 97% Tinto Fino and 3% Merlot, cooled down for 24 hours and then fermented with indigenous yeasts from a pied de cuve in stainless steel. It matured in barrel and oak vats during the first year, and in the second one, it aged exclusively in oak vats of different sizes, 8,500 and 21,000 liters. In 2020, the wine is finer-boned, more fluid and only medium-bodied, perhaps because of the dilution from the rain; the tannins are fine-grained and polished, but there's less juiciness in the wine. It calls for food. With time in the glass, the wine opens up and becomes more aromatic, and it even seems to gain juiciness and change texture.

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.