2013 Vega Sicilia Unico Gran Reserva, Ribera del Duero, Spain

Winemaker Notes
Unico Tinto is concentrated, juicy, silky, and well-defined. Notable characteristics included the healthiness, the strong coloring, and very ripe tannins suitable for ageing. An excellent vintage.

Blend: 95% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo), 5% Cabernet Sauvignon

Pres

Rated 98 points James Suckling
This has a polished and complex nose of poached plums, dark cherries, tea leaves, graphite, milk chocolate and a touch of caramel. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm yet creamy tannins. Caressing, seductive and ripe, but with underlying freshness. 97% tempranillo and 3% cabernet sauvignon. Tasted from magnum. The normal bottle will be released 2023 and the magnum in 2025. Try after 2023.

Rated 97 points Wine Advocate
The wine is subtle, elegant and fresh, complex, silky and with precision. The wine matured in 225-liter barrels in an initial phase and then in 22,000-liter oak vats until it was bottled in June 2019. This year, the final blend was 97% Tinto Fino and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon with a little less alcohol, 14%, and a pH of 3.78 and 5.2 grams of acidity, fresh and balanced, more elegant and subtler. Único often transcends the character of the vintage and doesn't follow the norm in the region, and the 2013 is a good example of that. It was a very rainy and complicated vintage; they harvested quite quickly to avoid botrytis, and while other people waited for concentration, they did not, and their approach clearly paid back. It's aromatic and floral, less dense than the 2012, subtler, more expressive and more elegant. It's clean and fresh, tasty, with very fine tannins. It's a big surprise for the vintage and one of the finest Únicos in the last few years. (LG)