Rothschild Vega Sicilia Macan Clasico Rioja 2020  £49.99

Vega Sicilia Macan Clasico 

Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia was born in 2004 as the result of a joint venture between Tempos Vega Sicilia and the Compagnie Vinicole Baron Edmond de Rothschild. Both firms share the idea of making great wines in La Rioja, a unique, singular, inimitable winegrowing region. After five years of terroir evaluation and acquisition of 92 ha of vineyard, the project takes shape in 2009 with the first vintage of their two wines: Macán and Macán Clásico. To offer a modern and unique vision of Rioja, is their philosophy, following the Bordeaux model of a first and second wine.

Macán Clásico is deeply attached to its territory. Freshness, fruitiness and delicacy are its signs of identity. It is produced in stainless steel casks; part of malolactic fermentation in oak; new oak and single-use barrels, ageing for 12 to 14 months determined only by the characteristics of the vintage. It later sits in bottle for over 18 months.

From the slopes of the Sierra de Cantabria, Macán Clásico is deeply rooted in the territory, in Rioja's Sonsierra, an area with centuries of winemaking tradition, wisdom and culture. Deep and complex, it is a reflection of the freshness, fruitiness, vivacity and finesse of this terroir. This wine is the result of a substantial investment in the selection, purchase and management of 100 hectares of vineyards since 2004. In addition, the work carried out in the winery since 2009 (first vintage released) is also commendable. Moreover, since 2016, the joint project of Tempos Vega Sicilia and Compagnie Vinicole Baron Edmond de Rothschild in DOCa Rioja boasts state-of-the-art facilities where innovation, technology and knowledge converge.

Macán Clásico is a single varietal, 100% Tempranillo. Its grapes come from plots with limestone and sandy-clay soils. The 2020 vintage was abundant, rainy, balanced and fluid. Although it was a challenging year due to Covid, in the vineyard we benefited from the fruitiness of the grapes and more elegant skins. We pushed the extraction a little further and put more emphasis on the oak in the ageing process, especially American oak, to give the wine more density.

Macán Clásico 2020 delivers a lively, vibrant, digestible, yet fun expression. Macán Clásico is gradually asserting its own style.

94 Points RoberParker.com

The 2020 Macán Clásico was cropped from a more generous crop. The grapes were put in a cold chamber for one night and then underwent a cold soak of three to four days, after which they inoculated the yeasts—in 2020, 25% of it was their native yeast. It fermented in stainless steel, and the élevage was 45% in new French and 5% new American oak barrels, 28% in second use barrel and 22% in stainless steel for one year. The bottled wine has 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.78 and 4.5 grams of acidity (tartaric). This is one of the most elegant vintages of this bottling so far. It has showy aromatics with notes of smoky bacon, a bit meaty, and the thing that surprised me the most was the velvety texture. 202,697 bottles, 1,998 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in August 2022.

Luis Gutiérrez