Vega Sicilia Launches Unico 2003 In Hong Kong

Pablo Alvarez, owner of one of Spain’s most famous wineries Vega Sicilia is currently in town to release the latest vintages of the range of wines from the winery. At an early morning tasting this morning I was fortunate enough to sit down with Pablo and the team from ASC Fine Wine, the Hong Kong distributor of Vega Sicilia and taste the entire range of new vintages.

Today saw the release in Hong Kong of the 2003 Vega Sicilia Unico, the 2008 Vega Sicilia Valbuena, the 2009 Pintia, the 2009 Alion, the 2011 Oremus (the dry Furmint they make in their Hungarian winery) and the Oremus Tokaj Aszu 5 Puttonyos (the sweet wine from their Hungarian winery).

It seems amazing that a year has passed by since we were sitting in Sevva with Pablo tasting the 2002 vintage Unico and commenting on the 2007 Valbuena et al. My how time flies! Vega Sicilia has seen yet further interest from a Hong Kong public yearning for more Spanish wines, a trend that has been seen over the last few years here.

So how are the wines? We started with the Oremus Mandolas Dry Furmint 2011 which was fresh with lemony aromas and some grassy notes. It has great structure and balance and is minerally with a long finish. The crisp minerality comes from the volcanic soils where the vines are grown and according to Pablo Alvarez is “best drunk within 5 years”. This is certainly a wine that will go very well with food and its flavours are associated with the sweet Furmint but in a dry style. Over one year you should see a marked development in the wine.

The Pintia 2009 is made from their 100 hectares of vineyards in the Toro region of Spain and has been one of my favourite wines from Vega Sicilia for the last four or five vintages. Of the 2009 Pablo Alvarez says; “We have three great vintages on the way with 2009, 2010 and 2011 – the 2012 is looking really good too”. The wine is very fruit forward and has notes of blackcurrant and blackberry and the aroma is a ‘manly one’. “Aging in the bottle is very important for Pintia as we never thought that Toro wines would age so well in the bottle”, says Mr. Alvarez. The 2009 had perfect growing conditions however this for me was not as good as previous vintages and, although a big, bold and masculine wine was just a bit too much for me. Would certainly need to decant this but I would suggest giving it another 2 or 3 years before opening and enjoying.

The Alion 2009 is hands down, absolutely fantastic. I was never a fan of Alion as it was always a little too feminine for me (hence why I am a Pintia fan) but this 2009 is wicked! “Alion 2009 is truly a fantastic wine from a fantastic vintage”, says Mr. Alvarez; and I think he has hit the nail on the head with that. It’s elegant and refined and upon the wine hitting the palate your taste buds suddenly wake up and get on with the party! This is definitely the best vintage of Alion I have tried – ever. I reckon It would be interesting to pick up a case and watch the development over the next 4 to 5 years as I think this wine is a real keeper. This vintage of Alion is the largest production in their history with a total of 330,000 bottles made.

“The Valbuena 2008 was a difficult vintage to make but we ended up with a fantastic, complex wine”, says Pablo. It has an outstanding nose that only heightens one’s expectation of the wine hitting the palate. It has the traditional Vega aromatics and is a wine that portrays the terroir of Unico but at a younger age. It is shockingly smooth on the palate and extremely easy drinking, not to mention intensely enjoyable.

 

"2003 was not a hot year for Unico as the heat did not have as much affect on the altitude of our vineyards as it did at lower climbs or in Bordeaux for example”, says Pablo. But when you put the glass to your nose, you know it’s Unico! It’s trademark Vega Sicilia! Great acidity with a stunning finish but let’s not forget that you should probably wait another 10 to 15 years before this wine will start to be at its best. I will certainly be buying up some of this and leaving it to chill out in my cellar for at least another 5 to 7 years. For the 2003 vintage of Unico, there were also 150 double magnums and 6 Imperials made which come in a specially designed wooden box that is made from the old oak fermentation tanks at the Vega Sicilia winery, pretty cool and unique and definitely something to get your hands on when they're made available.

The Tokaj Azsu Oremus 5 Puttonyos 2005 is: “A traditional sweet Tokaj wines where the big difference between Sauternes is the high acidity that gives more freshness to the wine” (Pablo Alvarez). It has a beautiful golden colour with stunning honey notes on the nose. There is a silky texture on the palate and is extremely comforting and soothing. As expected, it is a wonderful wine with a cracking finish of orange peel. Delightful!

The exclusive importer of Vega Sicilia in Hong Kong is ASC Fine Wines. Although these wines are not on the market quite yet, they are available to pre-order and they should arrive in Hong Kong around mid-summer time (around the beginning of July). So, if you are interested in being one of the first to pick these wines up go to www.asc-wines.com and contact them for more details.