Contrary to what most would admit, humans do in fact love unpredictability. So much so that in modern times, we've come to not just actually pay attention to when something is spontaneously launched, but that we'd make sure that it becomes a wine country's most highly prized wine. If you don't believe it, just take a look at the prices of Vega Sicilia's Unico wine.

But long before this sociological phenomenon was well understood by everyone from athletic brands dropping the latest sneakers to tech bros on stage with the newest device, Spain's Vega Sicilia had already nailed the 'drop' game. Where we expect winemakers to produce and release the latest vintage on cue - save for perhaps Port or Champagne-makers selectively declaring a vintage for their prestige cuvees - Vega Sicilia had understood that sometimes making your fans wait a full 16 years for your wine is perhaps the best thing you could do. Vega Sicilia doesn't bottle its Unico wines on cue, there's no prescriptive years of ageing where it comes to this gem nestled in Spain's Ribera del Duero, only its winemakers get to decide when a vintage of Unico is ready for release, a wait that is at shortest 10 years and at longest 23 years (that was the 1968 vintage that was finally released in 1991). In fact, the Spanish winery doesn't even adhere to any sort of schedule when it comes to releasing its wines, with some newer vintages released sooner than significantly older ones - each vintage is determined to be ready on its own, no matter how much anyone in the world is willing to pay for it.

Let's get into it - this is the Vega Sicilia story!

It all starts in 1864, in the heart of northern Spain on the banks of the Duero river ("Ribera del Duero" therefore translates as the "banks of the Duero", and where the river enters Portugal, it is known as the Douro, best known as the home of Port wines), with one Don Eloy Lecanda y Chave, who had inherited from his father, Toribio Lecanda y del Campo, land that was acquired during the mass confiscation (and subsequent sale) from the Catholic Church of Spain in order to fund liberal reforms that would lead to the creation of the state (the land was in fact once owned by Juan de Dios Álvarez Mendizábal, the Prime Minister of Spain).

Lecanda was deeply passionate about wine-making and would even train as a winemaker in Bordeaux. Upon his return, he would have cuttings of Bordeaux varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Carmenere (and even Pinot Noir) brought over to Spain. He would begin his work establishing what was then known as the Bodegas Lecanda, with 18,000 vines planted, including as well the native Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) varietal. It was said that by 1882, the estate had already 500,000 vines planted. Interestingly, up until 1927, the Ribera del Duero had only one winery, the Bodegas Lecanda, which would eventually come to be known as Vega Sicilia.

The incredibly extensive Vega Sicilia vineyards.

Whilst this was unheard of in the Ribera del Duero, it wasn't entirely unheard of, with Rioja further up north already having adopted these Bordeaux varieties (as a result of Bordeaux being devastated by phylloxera, prompting vignerons to move to Rioja as an alternative), and was also at the time the best known winemaking area of Spain. Nevertheless, this would not last long and Rioja would eventually return back to its Tempranillo roots, which local winegrowers knew took very well to the climate and soils of Spain, and consequently felt assured that they could reliably produce significant quantities of. 

Lecanda whilst endeavouring to produce great wines, the sort he had loved in Bordeaux, he would also at the same time produce brandy, which as it turned out was perhaps more popular than his wines (even winning international awards and having been appointed the court supplier). Unfortunately, Lecanda never managed to make the estate profitable and would eventually pass away in 1894 having never seen his wines take off. Yet, as it turns out, Lecanda's brandies had drew considerable attention to the estate, with in particular the Herrero brothers stepping in to acquire the estate in 1888. The Herrero's were a wealthy and aristocratic Spanish family who would create the earliest innings of the Vega Sicilia brand as we know it today, with much of its success having resulted from actions taken by the family - starting first with its renaming to Vega Sicilia in 1903, "Vega" to mean fertile riverbanks in Spanish, and "Sicilia" in reference to Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music (nevertheless the reason for the tribute to Saint Cecilia remains unknown).

Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music.

Rather than attempting to learn winemaking from scratch, the Herrero brothers would also lease out the vineyards to a winemaker by the name of Cosme Palacio, the only issue was, Cosme was just about 200 kilometers away in Rioja. Today as Spanish wine lovers will quickly attest, Palacio is nothing short of Rioja legend, helping to redefine the region's style into modernity (Fun Fact: The famous wine consultant Michel Rolland had worked on Palacio's winery as one of his earliest projects). Yet back then Palacio was facing an absolute crisis - phylloxera had by the early 1900's reached Rioja, and much like it did at Bordeaux, completely destroyed the region's vines. This unique situation meant that the Herrero brothers needed a winemaker, and Palacio needed vines outside of Rioja, with thus the two parties coming together. Yet, Palacio had to stay with his family's winery in Rioja, and thus would appoint Domingo Garramiola Txomin as his stand-in winemaker at Vega Sicilia. Through Palacio's tutelage, Garramiola would apply Bordeaux winemaking techniques at Vega Sicilia, from having the wines age in barriques to extended elevage. When the wines were ready, they would then be shipped off to Rioja, where Palacio would in turn use the Duero wines to cover his shortage, blending them with his Rioja wines. As such the Rioja wines took clear precedence (as there was already a demand for the wines, with the region then better known than the Duero), and any remaining wines from the Duero would typically end up staying in barrel for long periods of time, only bottled after all sales was done.

The fabled Bodegas Cosme Palacio.

When Palacio's lease of Vega Sicilia's vineyards was over, the Herrero brothers had decided to offer Garramiola to stay with the estate and be their winemaker, giving him full creative control, with the wines to even be bottled under his own name. The Herrero brothers had by now decided that they had wanted to sell wines to their fellow aristocratic peers and thus decided that Vega Sicilia would fully focus on winemaking, and to achieve quality at any cost. Garramiola would thus bring to Vega Sicilia the Bordeaux and Rioja techniques that he was well versed with, and with the unique mix of Bordeaux varietals and Tempranillo vines, he would thus produce the first expression of Vega Sicilia's Unico (to mean "unique") and Valbuena (translated as "good valley"), officially marked as having been inaugurated in 1915.

What came next was perhaps some of the earliest winemaking instances of creating hype! With these wines, the Herrero brothers would offer them strictly as business gifts, and served only at the best restaurants in Castilla, yet when one was to enquire as to buying the wines for themselves, they would be denied! That Vega Sicilia's wines were only seen in the most aspirational places, and with the most renowned of people, as the wine picked up a string of awards, and yet was not available for purchase, you could only imagine the massive storm of demand for the wines! This elevated Vega Sicilia to becoming the most highly sought after wine in all of Spain.

Jesus Anadon, a key figure who would serve as an anchor for the estate through its eras, and who fought hard for the region's recognition.

Nevertheless with the Spanish Civil War, along with the subsequent financial hardship that befell on Vega Sicilia, the Herrero brothers too having been unable to set up effective distribution channels to properly commercialise the wines, would eventually lose enthusiasm for the project and would sell the estate to a seed company, Prodes, in 1952. Whilst Prodes was hardly interested in the estate's winemaking activities (preferring to simply use it for farming), it was fortunate enough that the company's appointed manager at the estate, Jesus Anadon, was in fact an expert on Ribera del Duero wines, and had held a deep passion for realising Vega Sicilia's full potential. And so even having had to work with an incredibly tight financial leash, Anadon, together with Martiniano Renedo (Garramiola's assistant and successor), would fight tooth and nail to not only maintain Vega Sicilia's quality and reputation, but would even commit themselves to helping officiate the Ribera del Duero region with its very own DO (Denominacion de Origen), accruing critical recognition to the region's winemaking - a process that would take almost three decades, only finally coming to fruition in 1982.

In that time, Vega Sicilia would change hands twice more, first to Miguel Neumann (Hans Neumann), one of Venezuela's greatest industrialists, who was deeply impressed with the wines having tasted them in New York, prompting his purchase in 1966, and then finally to the the Alvarez family in 1982 - the year Ribera del Duero achieves its DO - with whom the estate currently resides with, and whose put great work at revitalising and promoting its wines. Winemaker Renedo would too be succeeded by Mariano Garcia (the son of a farm worker on the estate) in 1968, who would continue to work with Anadon into the Alvarez family's purchase of the estate, before eventually handing over the reins to Xavier Ausas.

Pablo Alvarez, who has magnificently steered Vega Sicilia into the 21st century.

The Alvarez family, headed by David Alvarez at the time of the Vega Sicilia purchase in 1982, had in fact made their money in the cleaning, security, maintenance and business services sector (David had been born in a small village to humble circumstances and had worked his way up from a owning a small janitorial shop to establishing one of Spain's most successful companies!), and had very little to do with the wine trade. Yet, when a friend had talked of how he was tasked by Neumann to find a foreign buyer for Vega Sicilia who could take the winery off his hands, Alvarez had thought that such a Spanish icon should not belong to someone from outside the country - he thus decided to purchase the winery! 

Shortly after the purchase, David would place his son, Pablo Alvarez, in charge of the winery, where he still holds the helm till this day. With the tailwind of the Ribera del Duero having achieved its DO appellation status, Pablo would build upon that momentum by significantly refurbishing the vineyards and winery, improving the quality of the wines, and even subsequently establishing four more wineries (Alion, Pintia and the Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia that produces the Macan wine), with even one in Hungary (Oremus in Tokaj)!

Vega Sicilia, with Alion next door.

A lawyer by education, Pablo would eventually work in his family's Grupo Eulen multinational company before eventually taking on the role of General Manager of Vega Sicilia in 1986 (eventually becoming TEMPOS Vega Sicilia, which holds all five of the Alvarez family's wineries). By the time the Alvarez family had come to own Vega Sicilia, the estate's extensive vineyards had fallen into decline due to a lack of investment, with just 80 hectares left of productive vines, insufficient to even meet the winery's required volume. Alvarez would thus work to professionalise the estate and had systematically studied every aspect of the winegrowing and winemaking process, which led to positive changes such as the removal of all chemical products that was previously used in the vineyards, to estate even now growing its own cork trees and operating its own dedicated cooperage, a rarity even in wineries around the world.

In 1991, as Alvarez began looking for a new project to expand on the family's winemaking, he would thus first start close to home - right next door in fact! This would thus become the Alion winery, where the wines are made with 100% Tempranillo in new French oak (instead of a mix of Bordeaux varietals as in Vega Sicilia). Sensing opportunity with the fall of Communism in Hungary, the Alvarez family would quickly work to establish the Oremus winery in the country's fabled Tokaj, making not just the highly famed sweet Tokaji wines but also innovating to make dry Furmint wines. By 1997, the Alvarez family would further grow their presence in Spain, venturing further out westward along the Duero River to Toro, where they would establish the Pintia winery, producing wines with 100% Tinta de Toro (a clone of Tempranillo) that's aged in French and American oak barrels. And then in 2013, Pablo Alvarez would have a chance encounter with Benjamin de Rothschild (then the single largest stakeholder of the legendary Chateau Lafite Rothschild), which would culminate in one of the famous international Rothschild winery partnerships, this time named the Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia (or BR&VS), which produces the Macan brand of wines in Rioja Alta, the traditionally famed home of Spanish winemaking - the ambition was then to produce a wine that reflected a single grand terroir, and to make Rioja wines in a bygone style of the 1960's. This was no small feat, with the family having purchased 80 hectares of land that was consolidated from 70 different owners! 

(Top Row; Left to Right): Alion, Pintia, Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia and Bodegas y Viñedos Deiva. (Bottom Row; Left to Right): Oremus in Hungary, a selection of wines produced by TEMPOS Vega Sicilia.

More recently, Alvarez had announced in 2022 the building of another Spanish winery, the Bodegas y Viñedos Deiva, this time in Rias Baixas of Galicia, where the goal is to produce white wines from the local Albarino varietal. It's said that Alvarez is himself a huge fan of white wines and had previously attempted to not just produce white wines at some of his family's other Spanish estates (with of course Oremus in Hungary), but had even tried to acquire wineries which would allow him to do so. It's been indicated that 2026 will see the first release from this new winery, and that moving forward it's highly speculated that Alvarez will be looking to produce Sherry wines as well, which he cites as being important to him as treasured icons of Spanish heritage.

With all that Vega Sicilia has achieved, its Grand Vin Unico today remains bar none the most prized wine from Spain, regularly fetching record breaking prices. Testament to its greatness is the fact that where the Ribera del Duero once held but just one winery - Vega Sicilia - today, the region is home to over 300 wineries!

The Duero River flowing through the Ribera del Duero.

Getting into the vineyards of Vega Sicilia, we're instantly taken up to a higher altitude of anywhere from 700 meters to 1,100 meters above sea level (that's higher than even most Bordeaux estates!), where whilst the climate is considered continental and arid, it's in fact extremely hot during the summers (and extremely cold in the winters) which then swings massively over to incredibly cool nights (a large diurnal swing). This is essential to creating the powerful wines of Vega Sicilia, and yet at the same time serves a big challenge to its winemakers where the fruit can sometimes rapidly gain ripeness that outpaces its tannins, with acidity also at times slow to pick up, and thus the pursuit for freshness remains a perennial goal. 

With as much as 1,000 hectares of land, the full Vega Sicilia estate is incredibly large, with then just 210 hectares of which is actually farmed with vines (only 70 hectares of some of the oldest vines are designated for the Unico) that comprise of 80% Tempranillo (specifically the smaller berry, higher tannin concentration Tinto Fino clone) and 20% Bordeaux varietals (the majority being Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Merlot, and a very small amount of Malbec) with an average age of 35 years old, although a sizeable portion of the vines are some of the oldest vines in the region (the vines used for Unico range from 60 to 100 years old with some even pre-phylloxera, whilst the Valbuena and Alion makes use of the younger vines). Nevertheless, besides its old vines that are preserved in part for historic value and the making of the Unico, the estate in fact employs an extensive replanting scheme as it prefers the quality of the fruit produced at the vine's mid-life rather than a significant ages. 

The soils here are incredibly diverse, which is recognised by the estate through its mapping out of 16 different soil types spread across 64 distinct plots. Shaped greatly by the Duero River, the soils can range from limestone and chalk along the slopes (producing acidity in its resulting wines) to clay, sand and gravel along the valley floor (creating complexity in the wines), with then a bedrock of schist (which is what allows the wines to age significantly). It's worth noting that the vines used for producing the Unico label typically come from vines planted higher up on the slopes, with more limestone-rich soils, showcasing the estate's emphasis on giving the wine greater acidity and freshness.

Yet, for a winery known for producing some of the longest elevage for any particular vintage, Vega Sicilia has hardly stayed still, constantly finding ways to not only keep up with its reputation for quality, but to actively pursue producing better wines, and perhaps more intrinsically, to continue understanding their land ever more intimately.

In the vineyards, Vega Sicilia has worked to achieve organic status (which they were officially certified for in 2023, even though the estate has worked without chemicals for over 30 years now), and has also applied quality practices such as green harvesting and encouraging biodiversity along with using natural means for pest control and soil rejuvenation, whilst also lowering yields and tightening fruit selection. 

Harvest in the Ribera del Duero is amongst the latest in Europe, and can stretch on into November. Once the fruit gets into the cellars, they are immediately cooled down in high spec cold chambers to preserve freshness before they are put through another round on a precision sorting table. Testament to Alvarez's embrace of technology, the winery has a custom-made "wine lift" that uses gravity to pour out the grapes directly into numerous fermentation vats, as well as subsequently even carrying the fermented wines down to a lower level of the building where it's then filled into barrels. Fermentation is conducted meticulously (with native yeasts), with now 81 separate oak fermentation vats (stainless steel for the Valbuena) that even allow for intra-plot fermentation precision (previously the winery had just incredibly large vats that meant that in vintages with insufficient volume, no Unico would be made, with all fruit then directed to the Valbuena). 

Once fermentation is complete, the Unico wines are then blended and filled into small oak barriques of 50% new French oak and 50% 1-4 year old American oak (coopered on site, and never used for more than 6 years) for an initial 12-24 months of ageing depending on the vintage. After the initial stage of ageing, the wines are then moved over to a larger old oak barrel for at least another 5 years before it is then bottled and aged until it is deemed ready for release. Whilst Unico labels, which are not made every vintage (on average twice in a decade is the vintage deemed not good enough) have over time seen shorter elevage times, with also an overall reduction of the proportion of Bordeaux varietals included in the cuvee, they are still typically aged for at least 10 years upon release.

Whilst the winery under Alvarez has been swift and extensive in its embrace of modern technology in improving parts of the winemaking process, the style of the wines, and by extension how they are made, have largely remained the same through the years, with Alvarez reflecting that "The wines are not what they used to be 50 years ago, but they still retain their distinctive character. The style has changed towards fresher wines that spend less time in oak and longer time in bottle."

Now finally, it's worth getting into the wines that Vega Sicilia produces, namely the flagship Unico, the Unico Reserva Especial, and finally the Valbuena 5°.

The Vega Sicilia Unico is a Gran Reserva that is typically released 10 years after its vintage, with the longest being 23 years (the 1968 vintage), and is made from predominantly Tempranillo (specifically the Tinto Fino clone) with the remaining 20% mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, with a very small portion of Merlot. The Unico typically accounts for less than one-third of Vega Sicilia's total production.

The Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial is a non-vintage (multi-vintage) blend of three top vintages, and is similarly aged for at least 10 years, with the vintages selected not fixed (or necessarily consecutive) and can be as far as 30 years apart. With each vintage of the Unico, some of the wines are held back for use in the Reserva cuvee. This is the rarest of Vega Sicilia's range, and whilst incredibly unique in the wine world today, pays homage to a Spanish practice dating back to the 1800's.

Finally, the most accessible of the range is the Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5° which is made almost entirely from Tempranillo (from younger vines), with a very small portion of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The wines are aged for 1 - 1.5 years in French and American oak before being transferred to larger old oak barrels for another 1.5 years of ageing prior to bottling, with then another two years in bottle, making for a total of 5 years of ageing upon release, which is denoted by the 5°.  In vintages when the Unico is not produced, the fruit then is directed towards the Valbuena label, making those vintages that much more sought after. It's worth noting that up until 1998, Vega Sicilia had also produced a Valbuena 3° which was aged for 3 years prior to release, which has since been scraped, having been replaced by the Alion label that's produced in the winery next door.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot