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Vega Sicilia: Ready-to-drink wine with personality
Founded in 1864, Vega Sicilia lavishes time and money on maturing their vintage wines
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Founded in 1864, Vega Sicilia lavishes time and money on maturing their vintage wines.
Unlike Bordeaux and Burgundy wines, which when drunk too young might only allow you to assess their probable longevity and potential greatness, Vega Sicilia wines are released on the market in a ready-to-drink state.
'We, not the customer, do the aging,' said owner Pablo Alvares Mezquiriz, who spoke English so softly with Spanish accent at Amuz restaurant during a Vega Sicilia wine dinner held in collaboration with distributor Patrick Lim of PT Gama Jaya Sukses.
Founded in 1864, Vega Sicilia lavishes time and money on maturing their vintage wines in both the barrel and bottle to achieve 'the maximum quality that is possible' as Mezquiriz put it, prior to its release to the market. For instance, the 1999 Unico featured at the dinner had been aged for 10 years, 'five in the barrel, and the other five in the bottle'.
His second label, Valbuena 5°, had been aged for five years as indicated by the 5° mark, other vintage wines, Alion and Pintia, the 'modern-style wines', were aged for approximately 14 months in the barrel and 2 years in the bottle.
Such unusually long aging significantly improves the wines, which have the Tempranillo grapes in them; the most famous of Spain's native grapes, noted for its phenomenal ability to age in cask, far beyond Cabernet Sauvignon.
Vega Sicilia uses both French and American oak ' regarded as the best ' to age its wines.
'50 percent in French oak and the other 50 in American oak,' Mezquiriz said, adding that each gives a complete different personality to the wines.
Alion, aged 100 percent in French oak, has flavors resembling red Bordeaux, which is not the case with Pintia, which is 70 percent aged in French oak and 30 percent in American oak.
'We use new, imported French oak barrels for only one year and then sell them to other wineries. Our American barrels are made by our coppers using oak imported from Ohio and cured for 3.5 years. We use them for five years and then destroy them,' he said, indicating how he pulls out all the stops to get the best flavors from each type of oak regardless of the cost.
The results speak for themselves. All the Vega Sicilia wines featured in the dinner ' Pintia 2006, Alion 2008, Valbuena 2003 and Unico 1999, all of which come from Ribera del Duero except Pintia which hails from Toro ' showed greatness imparted by both oaks and long aging.
That is why the wines' high alcohol contents (ranging from 14 to 15 percent) did not frontally assault the nose.
In general, lusciousness with notes of cassis, vanilla and fruitiness was held in balance by great acidity, subtle smokiness, smooth texture and spiciness.
Pintia 2006 had a rich, delightful floral bouquet but a shorter finish than the markedly sweet Alion 2008 with a ripe but restrained tooth-coating tannins and structure.
Valbuena 2003 was more elegant and complex than Alion. Its vibrant acidity made it refreshing, which was strange because 2003 was a scorching vintage in Europe. The pleasure these three provided was fantastic.
However, the 1999 Unico (90 percent Tempranillo and 10 percent Cabernet Sauvignon) was not as easy and ready to enjoy as the previous three.
I had very high expectations but it greeted me with a balsamic acidity, yeasty and barnyard smell, sour cherry and a dry, somewhat spicy finish. The impression I got after repeated swirling and straining to identify flavors masked by the dominating acidity was that of light minerality and savoriness.
However, the Unico belonging to the lady sitting in front of me which she drank only a bit and then allowed me to taste had better mid-palate density, was more opulent and fruitier (mulberry, cherry, raspberry) albeit restrained, with some sweetness, slightly tooth-coating tannins, subtle wood smoke, dried rose and menthol aromas. The finish was dry and spicy.
Perhaps this was due to bottle variation, or the decanting (albeit from 4 p.m.) of the wine in its own bottle instead of in a decanter, or the effects of the bigger U-shaped, short-stemmed glass it was in.
In spite of this, however, with this Unico I at least got a glimpse of both Burgundian Pinot Noir and Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon, which up to a point reflected what Mezquiriz was saying when quoting famous French wine journalist and writer Pierre Casamayor in that '[it has] the structure and power of Bordeaux and the elegance and complexity of Burgundy, both together'.
Vega Sicilia changed hands several times before acquisition by the current owners, the Alvarez family, in 1982.
Mezquiriz said that the influence of these past owners in the style of the wine was 'not very big because every owner had always respected the personality of the wine'.
However, he added that 'the wine itself has obviously changed over a course of 150 years as wine is permanently in evolution'.
Yes, it will be exciting to revisit Unico 1999 10 years later and see how it had evolved.
' Photos courtesy of Vega Sicilia
