2013 Único, Vega Sicilia, Ribera del Duero, Spain

97% Tinto Fino, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. Cool, wet spring followed by normal summer but rain during the extended harvest 27 September to 17 October) – ‘major efforts in the vineyard ensured the grapes were in perfect health and ripeness when they entered the winery’. Yield 25.2 hl/ha. Bottled June 2019: 76,476 bottles, 3,658 magnums, 362 double magnums, 59 Impériales and 6 Salmanazars. From magnum.

Dark crimson. Intense medicinal nose. Very sharp and intense and hard work in terms of acid and tannin but very promising. Essence of Vega Sicilia.

Drink 2026 - 2050

Look out for this on release, with its typical aromatics of red berries, violets and balsamic. It’s young, no doubt, entering with redcurrant fruit and underneath a bold line of tannin. It reflects the complicated vintage, but will come through in time. Cool rainy spring, normal summer with ‘the odd storm’, before a rainy end to the harvest. Yield 25.2hl/ha. Aged one year in new barrels, six months in used barrels, then 42 months in large-format vats. 76,476 bottles, 3,658 magnums, 362 double magnums, 59 Imperials and six Salmanazars. Tasted from magnum.

Drink 2028 - 2050

This vintage of Único may not make very old bones, but it's a delight to drink now and will continue to evolve for at least another decade. Reflecting the cooler, wetter growing season in 2013, it's a graceful, perfumed, balsamic Tinto Fino with earth and tobacco leaf aromas, sweet, almost gamey fruit and a leafy undertone from 3% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Drink 2023 - 2035

I had already tasted the 2013 Único from magnum in a vertical tasting of all the magnums ever produced and was quite impressed by it and the still unreleased 2014 that should be available in 2024). 2013 saw a rainy harvest, and the wine is subtle, elegant and fresh, complex, silky and with precision. The wine matured in 225-liter barrels in an initial phase and then in 22,000-liter oak vats until it was bottled in June 2019. This year, the final blend was 97% Tinto Fino and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon with a little less alcohol, 14%, and a pH of 3.78 and 5.2 grams of acidity, fresh and balanced, more elegant and subtler.

Único often transcends the character of the vintage and doesn't follow the norm in the region, and the 2013 is a good example of that. It was a very rainy and complicated vintage; they harvested quite quickly to avoid botrytis, and while other people waited for concentration, they did not, and their approach clearly paid back. It's aromatic and floral, less dense than the 2012, subtler, more expressive and more elegant. It's clean and fresh, tasty, with very fine tannins. It's a big surprise for the vintage and one of the finest Únicos in the last few years.

Drink 2023 - 2035

Tasted from Magnum. 97% Tempranillo and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon.

This has a polished and complex nose of poached plums, dark cherries, tea leaves, graphite, milk chocolate and a touch of caramel. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm yet creamy tannins. Caressing, seductive and ripe, but with underlying freshness.

Try after 2023