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Único Reserva Especial Venta 2014 (1994+1995+2000) NV 75cl

DO | Ribera del Duero | Castilla y León | Spain
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NV
Critics scores
98 Robert Parker
The NV 2014 Release Reserva Especial is a blend of different harvests, and therefore sold without a harvest year. This 2014 Release is a blend of 1994, 1995 and 2000, three very good years for Unico. Reserva Especial is the most Burgundian, classical and reminiscent of the old-style Vega Sicilias of yesteryear, a more subtle, baroque wine, aged for a long time in wood. It has a high level of complexity and a touch of volatility, which clearly tells you that this is not a style for everyone. This is not a fruit-driven wine. It’s a tertiary wine with a developed, complex bouquet consisting of hints of leather, earth, spices and iodine, and a subtle, elegant style. This was bottled in 2010 and is one of the best modern-day Reserva Especial vintages. By the way now that we’re talking about the best Reserva Especial, if you ever have the chance to drink a bottle of the 1990 release – that is the best one I’ve ever had. 15,500 bottles of this prodigious wine were produced. Make sure you grab at least one! Drink now-2025. I tasted the latest three vintages of Valbuena, to get up to speed with what’s in the market. If there’s a wine in their collection that has seen a huge improvement since 1998, it is Valbuena, which had been kind of neglected since the launch of Alion in the early 1990s. For Valbuena, they do not want a second wine in the Bordeaux style. But with the competitive Alion breathing down its neck and the pressure of its big brother, it felt a bit out of place. So they decided to look back at the vineyards: they studied the soils and saw why Unico and Valbuena had been (empirically) produced from separated plots.
Producer
Bodegas Vega Sicilia
Spain’s most famous red wine producer, Vega Sicilia consistently produces the best distinct blends from the Ribera del Duero, in both style and approach. Located in Valbuena de Duero, the estate has been in the Álvarez family since 1982, and has remained the largest in the country, with about 1000 hectares of property – 25% of which are planted to vines. Their top wine, Unico, is a delicious blend of Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and Cabernet Sauvignon. Unico benefits from extended cask-maturation time that has been perfected to preserve amble freshness in the finished wine. Then there is also the exceptional Reserva Especial, a non-vintage, which is a blend of the top selections, and is traditionally aged for 10 years consisting of mostly Tinto Fino, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The second wine coming from Ribera del Duero’s most influential vineyard is Valbuena, which has more present fruit character, a cuvée of Tinto Fino, Malbec and Merlot.