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Alion
2016
Vega Sicilia is a legendary estate recognized worldwide – and for good reason: this old property, dating from 1864, produces several high quality wines, including the renowned “Unico” which is subjected to an extremely long ageing process (up to 8 years before bottling), what delights the most demanding palates around the world. Founded in 1864 by Eloy Lecanda, the property bought its first vines in Bordeaux. The estate produced the first vintage of Vega Sicilia Valbuena and Vega Sicilia...
See the TEMPOS VEGA SICILIA detail page for more information on this brand
Fresh and very floral with violets and berries. Blackberries and orange peel, too. Medium-to full-bodied with firm, linear tannins. Excellent length and structure. Seriously structured, Better after 2024, but already beautiful.
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Vega Sicilia’s other expression of Ribera del Duero. Originally purchased grapes were used to build a modern style; today the winery owns almost 70% of the vineyard and is aiming for 100%. A focus on precision in winery saw grapes going into 42 separate deposits. Oak has been reined back from 100% new; with just 10% American oak. Very fine floral aromatics and an equally refined palate. Dark fruits lifted by citrus freshness, a vivid style, finishing intense and long with juicy plums.
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The 2017 Alión, the only wine produced here, comes from a challenging year marked by spring frost and a warm and dry end of the season, so they reduced the amount of new oak by 8%. It fermented with indigenous yeasts, and 10% of the volume aged in concrete, completely unoaked. The change in the oak regimen helped with the style of the vintage, which was marked by the frost that hit part of the Alión vineyards. Furthermore, the end of the season was warm and dry, and they had to work to control ripeness and power and perhaps the possibility of more aggressive tannins. It's a classical Alión, with some developed aromas, juicy and round but not heavy, with just a tad of earthy rusticity. With time, it develops more balsamic notes and hints of licorice. 230,032 bottles, 7,04 magnums, 614 double magnums and a handful of bigger sizes were produced. It was bottled in June 2019.
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Opaque ruby. Primary dark fruit, floral and vanilla aromas are sharpened by a spicy suggestion of cracked pepper and woodsmoke, and licorice notes build in the glass. Juicy and smooth on the palate, offering densely packed, spice-laced bitter cherry, blackberry and fruitcake flavors that firm up slowly with aeration. Shows superb depth as well as energy on the impressively long finish, which is firmed by youthfully gripping tannins.
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2017 will be remembered as the vintage of the great frost in northern Spain (the fateful April 28). For Alión, grapes from different villages in Ribera del Duero are used, among which Pesquera, La Horra, Roa and Gumiel stand out. Luckily, they were the villages where the impact of this frost was less than elsewhere. The vintage ended very warm and dry, undoubtedly a challenge for winemakers. To adapt to these conditions, Gonzalo Iturriaga and his team used a higher percentage of concrete during winemaking and a lower percentage of new barrels than the norm. In addition, they opted for lighter-toasted, fresher barrel profiles (Sylvain and Taransaud).
It is a firm, hard Alión, with lots of black fruit and hints of ash. A very rooty vintage, rich in humus and organic notes; to decant and to leave open for a while, with a closed nose but which will grow. With all these deep and earthy notes, it surprises with its more polished and fresh palate, with a lot of intensity of flavour, very polished tannins and just memories of forest floor. An Alión with tension, which will undoubtedly evolve very well. (FC)
