Vega Sicilia - Unico 2011
Price: $650.00
Sale Price: $549.95
| Producer | Vega Sicilia |
| Country | Spain |
| Region | Ribera del Duero |
| Varietal | Tempranillo |
| Vintage | 2011 |
| Sku | 07493 |
Vega Sicilia Description
From the 1,000 hectares which make up the Vega Sicilia estate, 210 are used for wine growing, under 19 soil types divided into 57 plots with very specific characteristics. The influence of the Duero River’s flow and the passage of time have been vital in developing these soils.
40 of these hectares are used to produce Unico, whose aging of at least ten years (in barrel and bottle) is one of the world’s longest. 225-litre French and American oak barrels, new and used, 20,000-litre tanks. A long complex process, for a legendary wine.
James Suckling: 98 Points
Very ripe with plum, spice and dried-flower aromas, as well as chocolate, fresh flowers and sandalwood. Coffee and hints of meat. Sort of decadent. Full-bodied with round, creamy tannins and an intense, juicy feel. Unique cedar and walnut undertones. So delicious now, but one for the future, too.
Wine Advocate: 96 Points
The Único released in 2021, 10 years after the harvest, is the 2011 Único, selected from 40 of their 210 hectares of vineyards. 2011 is a concentrated and ripe vintage, and they selected 95% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon that were cooled in a cold room for 24 hours before being sorted; the bunches and grapes macerated at 9 to 10 degrees Celsius for three to four days, and then it was inoculated with a pied de cuve to ferment with pumping overs. Malolactic was in stainless steel, and the wine was put through a long aging, 10 years between oak and bottle, using new and used French and American oak barrels and 20,000-liter oak vats. For Vega Sicilia, 2011 was a fresher year than 2010, not the common idea about those vintages in Ribera del Duero. The wine has a developed nose with some notes of ripe black fruit, meat and underbrush, somewhat herbal and perfumed. There is something about the nose of the Únicos that I cannot quite describe but is quite distinct, and it's in this vintage and also in the Reserva Especial. 88,288 bottles, 3,505 magnums, 318 double magnums, 60 Imperial and 3 Salmanazar were produced. The wine was bottled in June 2017.
Vinous Media: 96 Points
Deep, shimmering ruby. An intensely perfumed bouquet evokes ripe black and blue fruits, vanilla, pipe tobacco, exotic spices, cola and potpourri. Deeply concentrated and energetic on the palate, offering smoke-laced black currant, cherry liqueur, spicecake and mocha flavors that display outstanding clarity and pick up a candied violet nuance on the back half. Polished, steadily building tannins frame the finish, which hangs on with outstanding, mineral- and floral-driven tenacity.
Wine Spectator: 95 Points
This concentrated, harmonious red packs in a lot of flavor, with plum, mountain herb, leather and spice notes woven together with cedar and vivid mineral elements tracing along the finish. The tannins are nicely integrated, with good balance and finesse overall. Tinto Fino and Cabernet Sauvignon.
