Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial 2022 Release  £514.44

Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial 2022 Release

Bearing witness to the past, it pays serious homage to the history of Spanish wine in which the most stable Vega Sicilia concept is shown.

A wine that, combining the balance between the best vintages and harvests, faithfully reflects the magic of a legendary land.

A mixture of years, virtues, experiences and sentiments. The value of an eternal surprise.

This red wine has no vintage and it is a tribute to tradition. The winery here sought to continue a very old Spanish custom and also to combine the balance between vintages. Traditionally, in Spain, the very few wineries that had a bottling process prepared two types of wines in each harvest: the one of the current year and another wine without a specific harvest, which they called "Reserva Especial". It was a mixture of wines from the best harvest from which the most representative wine of the winery was siphoned off.

This is a non-vintage Vega Sicilia and a tribute to tradition.

Unico Reserva Especial is a true homage to the history of Spanish wine, perfectly combining the characteristics of different Unico vintages. Only the best Unico vintages are used to produce this iconic and remarkably complex wine. It is a blend of time, virtues, experiences, and emotions that shape the most profound nature of a proprietary, unique style: the Vega Sicilia style.

Unico Reserva Especial 2022 is a blend of the 2008, 2010, and 2011 vintages.

98 Points Robert Parker

The NV Único Reserva Especial 2022 Release is a blend of wines from 2008, 2010 and 2011, mostly Tinto Fino with some Cabernet Sauvignon mixing lots from the Único wines from those years. In the past, the blend was older vintages, but now it's wines that are around the same age as the Único. It has the complexity of mixing terroirs, vintages and grapes with parameters very similar to Único, 14.5% alcohol and good balance with a pH of 3.83 and 5.4 grams of acidity (measured in tartaric acid per liter). In the blend, they look for keeping the style of past blends, combining the more aged notes of the older wines and the freshness of the younger ones. I was very pleasantly surprised by the performance of this Reserva Especial, which seems to be going back to the character of the blends from yesteryear, with more finesse, elegance and nuance. This is perfumed, elegant, harmonious and balanced. It has very fine, already polished tannins and integrated acidity. 2008 and 2010 are cooler years, and they seem to give the blend this freshness and elegance. It has all the components, and especially the balance between all of them, to age nicely in bottle. 16,961 bottles and 201 magnums were filled in June 2018.

Luis Guiterrez