Valbuena 5 año - Tinto Fino & Cabernet Sauvignon

Review

Cropped from an unusually cold and rainy vintage in which they will not bottle Único, the 2013 Valbuena is always released in its fifth year. It's mostly Tempranillo with 5% Merlot that was put through a three- to four-day cold soak in the oak vats where it fermented with indigenous yeasts and was pumped over. It matured in new and used 225-liter French and American oak barriques and also in 20,000-liter oak vats, where the larger vessels respect the fruit, especially in a more fragile vintage like 2013. It's a very elegant and fresh Valbuena with a developed nose, quite classical with a fine texture, elegant tannins and a supple, long finish where the oak is still quite obvious. I liked it very much and consider it a triumph over the challenges of the year. 150,650 bottles and some larger formats were produced. It was bottled in June 2015. 94/100 Luis Gutiérrez

I was very happy to see all three wines from Vega Sicilia showing a quite classical and consistent personality, following the character of each vintage. The Reserva Especial, however, is much younger than the versions from yesteryear (the one sold in 2018 is a blend of 2005, 2006 and 2007) and has a profile that is not that far from the regular Único anymore.