First taste: Vega Sicilia’s latest releases including Unico 2010

The pleasure of the Vega Sicilia new release tasting is always that it is a chance to savour the work of a winery that has paid such continuous and scrupulous attention to its estates. Vega Sicilia was the first winery in Ribera del Duero, a century before the DO itself was created. The history of the property goes back to the 17^th century, but it wasn’t until Eloy Lecanda inherited it in the late 19^th century that the contemporary story of wine began.

Since that time it has had several changes of ownership (it’s now owned by the Alvarez family), weathered the storms of the Civil War in Spain, and various economic crises in the country. Throughout it remains Spain’s most historic wine icon.The estate is some 900ha in size, of which just over 200ha are planted to vine. It benefits from a range of slopes and aspects, with diverse soils, up to an altitude of some 700m. There’s a process of constant investment, and reassessment of winemaking and maturation processes, the small steps that add up to a big change.

In the past 50 years there have been just three winemakers. The latest, Gonzalo Iturriaga, arrived in 2015 and has been able to fine-tune the work of his predecessors.

Given Vega Sicilia’s remarkable longevity, his versions of the flagship Unico and Reserva Especial will not be appearing in the market for quite a few years yet. But it is clear that there may be tweaks to some of the wines.Vega Sicilia has always been famed for its firm-structured character, dense and concentrated. Pintia in Toro, for instance, will never be mild-mannered, but you can now trace a path from 2008 through to the present, showing the gradual taming of the style.

When a producer such as Vega Sicilia is as famous as the Taj Mahal, it is very easy to follow the established views and not form one’s own opinion. It’s a burden for the producer as well as for the consumer. It can also mean that the producer stagnates.

The 2019 Vega Sicilia Latest Releases tasting was held at Berry Bros & Rudd in London on 26 November and hosted by Pablo Alvarez. It showed that the wines of the Tempos Vega Sicilia group are developing and changing subtly, and well. This is the time to revisit them.

While you do, don’t miss the dry Furmint from the group’s Oremus property in Tokaji. Although Oremus was originally acquired for its sweet wines, the dry white from the house is outstanding. Alvarez explains that he has hired a Greek consultant who works in Burgundy. It shows. This is a wine of really Burgundian elegance.

Sarah Jane Evans MW rates the new releases

See all Vega Sicilia tasting notes here