We have just listed the latest release of Vega Sicilia Unico: the 2016 vintage. A cooler vintage than the two that preceded it, and the first vintage under winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga de Juan, the 2016 leans to a pure and elegant style of Unico, one that has so far met with high praise from the critics that have tasted it.

Writing for jancisrobinson.com, Ferran Centelles scores the 2016 18.5 points: “It feels like a quiet evolution for Único: less overtly oaky, more transparent, and carrying a sense of purity that elevates the estate’s signature character rather than shifting it”. Zekun Shuai, for jamessuckling.com, is at 98: “Everything is in harmony, showing an almost ethereal quality in contrast to the denser 2015 vintage.”

Just this week Luis Gutierrez came in with the highest praise yet, scoring the wine 99 points. “This is a monumental vintage of Único”.  He has only ever scored two vintages higher than this (the 1968 and 1970 both get the full 100, albeit with 50 plus years of bottle age).

Unico is built on Tempranillo with a dash of Cabernet Sauvignon, both of which are grown on colluvial sandy limestone soils with a subsoil of quartz gravel – critical in giving the wine its structure and ageing potential. The ageing is also unique and important to the style, with a particularly long elevage: around four years maturation in a mixture of new and used French and American oak barriques and 22,000 litre casks. The wine then spends a further six years in bottle prior to release.

Packed in original wooden cases of three bottles, the wine will be shipping to the UK in late Spring this year. Also released are the 2021 vintage of Valbuena, the 2022 vintage of Alion, and the 2026 release of Vega Sicilia Reserva Especial, a blend of the 2011, 2012 and 2014 vintages.