2004 Vega Sicilia Valbuena

1 bottle of 2004 Vega Sicilia Valbuena, a wine that harks of spice and layers of fruit.

In 1982 El Enebro S.A., a company owned by the Álvarez Mezquíriz family, acquired the winery and the vineyards from the Venezuelan businessman Miguel Neumann. From that year onwards, the family, with David Álvarez and his sons and daughters Pablo, Jesús David, María José, Emilio, Juan Carlos, Elvira and Marta, have developed a policy of harmonization of present innovative techniques required by the wine sector with the traditional winemaking process. The vineyard area has been extended and the vineyards and vines, which were almost half a century old, have been replanted in rotation.

Vega Sicilia is unquestionably a unique wine, and one of the great Spanish classics. Its personality not only comes from the maximum quality of the grape and the rigour involved in its manufacture, but also, and above all, from the care for detail that the Álvarez family has succeeded in transmitting to the wines. The Vega Sicilia wines enjoy a certain old but stately air, like period furniture; wines with great elegance, finesse, complexity and the ample capacity for maintaining their characteristics in the bottle for a long time.

"The saturated purple 2004 Valbuena offers up an expressive perfume of mineral, scorched earth, espresso, incense, and black cherry. This is followed by a medium to full-bodied, intensely flavored, spicy wine with layers of fruit, soft tannins, and a pure, lengthy finish. It will benefit from another 5-7 years of bottle age and offer optimal drinking from 2015 to 2029." Jay Miller, The Wine Advocate, 2011