Viva La Espana !

Here at the Great Vintage Wine, we have no time for the ordinary!

So this post is all about an extraordinary wine from Spain.

Before I tell you more about this wine, let me tell you that two of the three retailers of this wine listed here, each have less than 15 bottles of this rare wine available at this time!!!

The 2010 release of Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial is a “non vintage” blend produced from the 1991, 1994, and 1995 vintages, the best lots of the very best years and the average age of the wines used is usually at least 30 years old.

Surprisingly for a single identifiable vintage buff like me, this blended vintage actually works!

Apparently a great blend of vintage wines removes the vagaries of the vintage factor by blending it away, leaving a wine that could well be better than any of the constituent single vintage wines!

This wine is really unique in that they sell single vintage bottles (like everybody else) and then blend a few really great vintages together and sell that as a Reserva Especiale! (and it works!)

Peculiarly, it was not too many years ago that they didn’t even mention which wines were in the blend. Then they started putting codes on the bottles so that ”those in the know” could discover which vintages were blended together.

Nowadays, in the enlightened times, the information is on the label and we can all know what we are drinking 🙂

Wine Gourmet Speak!

This 2010 release of Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial has a deep Purple/dark ruby color with spices, sweet berries and so much more!

It is deliciously mouth filling on the palate, with an after taste that lasts and lasts and lasts!

Hugely complex, opulent and full-bodied, with rich sumptuous notes of graphite, kirsch liqueur, spice box, and vanilla, this really interesting wine is Opulent, round, and full-bodied, with great precision, freshness, and depth.

With its heady fragrant and sexy perfume of cigar box, leather, delicious mushrooms and a hint of truffles, it is perfectly balanced.

What is more, you can drink it for at least 25 years and more!

If that was not enough, the Devine Wine Gourmet, Robert Parker awards this exceptional wine 99 out of a 100 points!

Well, if HE likes it that much………………!

Not only, but also….

The late Princess Diana was I am told, partial to the Vega Sicilia.

Me thinks that The Princess must have acquired the taste for this wine from her (very clued up and always slightly ahead of times) husband, because it is said that each year, some of this interesting wine is purchased by the Royal Household at the Clarence House.

The Region

Ribera del Duero is located in Spain’s northern plateau, approximately an hour and a half from Madrid and extends over four provinces of Castilla y León: Burgos, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid.

The River Douro is one of Europe’s most untouched and beautiful rivers and it snakes through northern Spain and Portugal to the ocean.

Ribera del Duero region (ribera means river bank) is the area in and around the Duero River Valley, on both sides of the River Duero, and benefits from the great diversity of soils deposited by the river.

This wine is truly rare!

The yields in the vineyards of Vega Sicilia are kept low, by the very Politically Correct Green harvesting method.

So much so, that each vine produces less than 2 kg of grapes!

Vega Sicilia grape harvest is usually later than other harvests, going on to October at the earliest.

The Estate employs a team of around 120 to 180 harvesters who pick the grapes by hand. The hand picked grapes are de-stemmed and then carefully selected for quality.

The annual production is only around 25,000 cases, and there is a current waiting list of over 3000 (and growing) people for an allocation!!!

No wonder that we found this wine to NOT be widely available at this time and were able to locate it only at the following outlets:

1.
Turville Valley Wines
The Firs, Potter Row, Great Missenden, Bucks HP16 9LT Tel (44) 01494 868818
Web – http://www.turville-valley-wines.com/

Turville Valley Wines has been offering a very personal, professional service to discerning clients all over the world since 1979, specialising in Fine and Rare wines. They tell me that they pride themselves on the fact that they inspect every bottle they sell!

BUT, they only have 12 bottles of the 2010 release of Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial available right now @ £192 + VAT per bottle.

However, they are expecting more of this wine in February of next year.

Contact Christopher Davis who takes care of world wide Private Customers – chris@turville-valley-wines.com

2.
MUST OF WINES of Barcelona

They only have 11 bottles available of this wine! (This must be good stuff!)

Here are the details:

Available ONLY 11 bottles of Vega Sicilia Reserva especial 2010 at 209.48 € + VAT at this time.
Not surprisingly, there is no minimum order and a client can buy just 1 bottle if he wants!

MUST OF WINES S.LAvda. Diagonal, 630 2-208017 Barcelona Tel.+34 93 654 82 57 M. +34 696 301 457
Web: www.lexcellence.es The contact person there is David Guye dguye@mustofwines.com

3.
Bordeaux Index Ltd.
10 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8AH http://www.bordeauxindex.com/

We spoke to Gareth Birchley at Bordeaux Index.
(Bordeaux Index is a well respected retailer of fine wines right at the heart of the London Diamond District)

Gareth said that as of 20 December, 2010, they have 3 dozen and 6 btls of the 2010 N.V. Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial is available at their shop.
The price is £2050 per case of 12 bottles – Under Bond – which means of course that the price does not include VAT .

Contact Gareth Birchley at Bordeaux Index.

Phone : +44 (0) 20 7269 0703 Email: sales@bordeauxindex.com

For the Wine Techies

Size – 750ML, Colour- Purple/dark ruby, Varietal – Tempranillo, Country – Spain, Region – Ribera del Duero.

Those were the days!

Salamanca is one of the most-fun University towns in Spain and as a kid, way back then, I spent some great summers around there.

The fact that this wine originates from around Salamanca is a very big tick for the wine as far as I am concerned 🙂

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