Ribera Del Duero DO Vega Sicilia Unico Famille Alvarez 1979

Lot presentation

Ribera Del Duero DO Vega Sicilia Unico Famille Alvarez 1979

The wine

Unico is the emblem of Vega Sicilia and crafted from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, a Bordeaux variety, and Tempranillo, a local variety known for its early ripening. The grapes grow on soil comprised of small fragments of limestone and gravel with sand deep below. In the cellar, natural yeasts set off alcoholic fermentation which takes place in wooden vats and is followed by malolactic fermentation. The wine is then aged for a particularly long time - six years in different wooden barrels of various sizes. The barrels are made of French and American oak, and some are 225 litres in size and have already been used, while others hold 20,000 litres of wine. Spending four years refining in the bottle harmonises the flavours and profile before the wine is released onto the market.
This fine wine from Spain stands alongside the world’s finest and presents a dense but elegant profile, perfect for long cellaring.

Planted on mainly limestone soil similar to Burgundy, the Vega Sicilia vineyard is home to one of the world's greatest wines. "Vega" means "fertile plain" in Spanish, while "Sicilia" comes from a linguistic distortion. When the estate was founded in 1864, it went by the name Coto de Santa Cecilia, referencing a chapel dedicated to Saint Cecilia. Over time, Cecilia became Sicilia, and the name by which we now know the estate.
Out of the property’s 1000 hectares, which can be as high as 700 metres above sea level, looking down on the Duero (or Douro) River, 210 are dedicated to grape growing. Today, Bordeaux varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec) make up 20% of the vines with the remaining 80% being the local Tempranillo. The climate at the estate is continental with an Atlantic influence.
Vega Sicilia's defining feature lies in its unique ageing process, which is a subject of much controversy. The wine is aged in large oak barrels from the very first year, and then decanted into different barrels of varying ages and sizes. Next comes an ageing period of five to ten years, allowing this phenomenally powerful wine's temperament to be softened. Some mature vintages were aged for over 25 years in barrels. Nowadays, the estate operates a more ‘classic’ ageing process of no more than ten or so years.