Alion comes from inarguably Spain's most sought after winemaker Vega Sicilia. There are many things that make Vega Sicilia so unique, from its combination of Bordeaux varietals with Spanish Tempranillo (they use Tinto Fino, an ancestral clone), to how its wines are released in no particular order of vintage, and with variable - although extensive - age, and yet it could be said that Vega Sicilia made a name for itself by proving it can make some of the world's most powerful, elegant and long-lived wines far outside the traditional wine regions of Spain.

Located in the center of northern Spain, along the banks of the Duero River (where it passes into Portugal, it is then known as the famed Douro River), it is undisputed that Vega Sicilia essentially made the region of Ribera del Duero (literally meaning "riverbanks of the Duero") a bonafide winegrowing spot. Where there was once just winery - Vega Sicilia - there is today hundreds. Not in Rioja, and certainly not in Jerez, Vega Sicilia is made in the Ribera del Duero, and could almost be said to be the Ribera del Duero as far as wines are concerned. In its over 160 year history, it has since grown far and wide, both across Spain and internationally, and the Alion Winery is one of that.

But first let's talk about what made Vega Sicilia what it is today!

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.

As such, it's impossible to talk about Vega Sicilia without talking about Unico.

And so 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.

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! Well, 15 kilometers next door that is (which is rather minuscule considering Vega Sicilia's total 1,000 hectares of land)!

Bodega Alion.

This would thus become the Alion winery (or Bodega Alion), where the wines are made with 100% Tempranillo in new French oak (instead of a mix of Bordeaux varietals as in Vega Sicilia).

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. 

The Duero River flowing through the Ribera del Duero.

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 - 140 hectares of which go to Vega Sicilia’s Unico and Valbuena, whilst the remaining 70 hectares of just Tempranillo goes to Alion. Whilst the vineyards are 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), again only the Tempranillo vines are used for Alion. The vines here hold an average age of 30-40 years old, although other parts of the vineyards upslope hold vines that are as old as 100 years of age and are pre-phylloxera, reserved for the Unico. That said, it’s worth mentioning that the estate actually prefers the quality of the fruit at the mid-life and thus has actively engaged in an extensive replanting scheme.

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).

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 typically runs late, and sometimes stretch into November. Once the fruit is harvested and sorted by hand, they are then brought to the Alion winery (which is separate from the Vega Sicilia winery. The Alion winery was in fact once the Bodegas Liceo, which was acquired, renamed and refurbished by Vega Sicilia in 1982 under the helm of the Alvarez family - the first of many projects outside of Vega Sicilia. Named after the area in Leon where David Alvarez was born, the winery's goal was to produce a more modern interpretation of the wines of the Ribera del Duero where Vega Sicilia would continue as the masthead for heritage and tradition. It was also marked out to be a more accessible and younger second wine for Vega Sicilia's Unico, and thus its release saw the ceasing of the Valbuena 3º (although the Valbuena 5º remains). 

And so the Alion winery single purpose is to make just one expression - the Alion. To that end, the estate not only taps on the 70 hectares of Vega Sicilia vineyards, but also draws from across the Ribera del Duero appellation, sourcing fruit from growers in Padilla de Duero, Valbuena de Duero and Pesquera de Duero, totalling 130 hectares of vines.

Using 100% Tinto Fino Tempranillo, the fruit undergoes another round of sorting at the Alion winery, with fermentation taking place in wooden tanks under controlled temperatures (it used to be stainless steel tanks, with the team convinced that wood would be better suited) to produce the ideal polyphenolic structure, after which it is then aged for 12-14 months in 100% new French oak Bordeaux barrels procured from leading Bordeaux firms. The winery has emphasised the costly nature of religiously sticking with new French oak! After oak ageing, the wine is then filled into bottles for another round of 15 months of ageing before it is then released, making each bottle of Alion at least 2 years old.

Let's give it a go!

PS. We were lucky to get to try this at the VinExpo Asia 2025 that was held in Singapore, which was a massive showcase featuring hundreds of producers from around the world, with benchmark names like Vega Sicilia, which was displayed under the Primum Familiae Vini (PFV) association that brings together amongst the most legendary of family owned wineries, each of whom are icons of their region!

Wine Review: Tempos Vega Sicilia Alion

This was the 2021 vintage. 

Tasting Notes

Colour: Dark Ruby

Aroma: Super aromatic! It's immediately perfumed with a floral powderiness. It's powerful with intense and elegantly sensual aromatics of dried rose petals and potpourri. This is then backed up by cherry jams, with deeper still and more concentrated tones of red and black fruit preserves of raspberries, blackberries and dark cherries. It's radiant and supple, with an expressive ephemeral quality!

Taste: Medium-bodied, it opens with cherry preserves. Superbly plush and elegant, with moderate concentration, it continues on to red licorice, as well as red and black fruits of blackberries and raspberries, still with that perfumed florals of dried rose petals. The acidity is bright yet completely rounded, with the tannins powdery.

Finish: A touch more dry here, some of that wood grains come through, yet coated with those powdery tannins. That powerful perfume of dried rose petals and potpourri persists. It keeps that firm, structured quality, working towards a clean and dry finish with that perfumed powderiness lingering beautifully.

My Thoughts

Super, super aromatic! This had the most incredible aromatic intensity, radiantly expressing all these rose petals and potpourri so beautifully! It's elegant as it is sensual, backed up by supple tones of red and black fruit preserves of blackberries, raspberries and dark cherries. The acidity is bright yet soft and rounded, with the tannins characteristically powdery throughout, integrated with those perfumed florals. The body here is firm and structured, holding in those perfumed florals and supple fruit tones, striking a moderate concentration that keeps it accessible and lifted, without much heaviness. It's a really elegant wine that's evocative and compelling, yet at the same time delivers on its goal of being accessible and really easy to get into. It's striking without complication, the sort that stuns but doesn't intimidate or befuddle.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot