Vega Sicilia
Unico Gran Reserva
Ribera del Duero
2009

The producer

There is no argument that Vega Sicilia is the most famous of all wines from Ribera del Duero. It also has the longest history dating back to 1695 although the fine wine story commences only in the mid to late 1800s and blossomed under the guidance of Cosme Palacio after 1894. The wine suffered under corporate ownership through the 1950s but returned to making fine wine from the late 60s. The modern face of Viega Sicilia began with the involvement of Pablo Alvarez who took full control in 1985 and the winery has not looked back since.

Vega Sicila makes only three wines – Valbuena 5, Unico, and Unico Reserva Especial.

Valbuena spends 30 months in barrel and two years in bottle before release and is made from Tempranillo with perhaps 10% of Merlot and Malbec in the blend. Unico is also Tinto Fino but includes 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and spends six years in casks and four in bottle before release. Unico Reserva Especial follows the old tradition of blending wines from various vintages – in this case the best vintages of Unico. The name Vega Sicilia is synonymous with the best of Ribera del Duero.

The wine

Unico is Vega Sicilia’s flagship and arguably Spain’s most famous and most expensive fine wine. Fruit is sourced from 36-year-old vines in Vega Sicilia’s 64 finest vineyard plots and is made from 95% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Fermentation is with wild yeast in wooden tanks and followed by 10 years of ageing between wood and bottle: Normally 6 years in wood and 4 years in bottle. The different stages of maturation take place in different types of barrels: from American to French oak, and including new and used, and small and large barrels. It is impossible to do this wine justice in writing!

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.