2012 Único, Vega Sicilia, Ribera del Duero, Spain

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Full Bodied
  • Tempranillo
Tim Atkin MW
98/100
Sarah Jane Evans MW
95/100
Luis Gutiérrez
96/100
James Suckling
97/100
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Product: 20128004745
2012 Único, Vega Sicilia, Ribera del Duero, Spain

Description

Delightfully fine on the nose, rich, dark, spicy Tempranillo fruit, intense and complex with notes of raspberries, black, berry fruit, smoke, sarsaparilla and grilled meat. Even more impressive still on the palate, a feast for the senses with red and black berry fruit all wrapped up in the most elegant and refined of structures. Linear, energetic and focused, this is incredibly impressive, balanced by crisp acidity and the finest of fine-grained tannins. A real iron hand in a velvet glove on the long, satisfying finish. Spain’s one Grand Cru.

Chris Pollington, Senior Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd

Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2012
Alcohol % 14.5
Grape List Tempranillo
Body Full Bodied
Property Vega Sicilia

Critics reviews

Tim Atkin MW 98/100
The latest in a superb run of Único releases, the 2012 is a finely judged cuvée of Tinto Fino and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon from vineyards on the south side of the Duero river with a northerly aspect. There's no sign of the heat of the vintage here on a wine that is poised, complex and self-assured. Floral, mature and nicely evolved, with fine French and American oak, graceful tannins and a hint of graphite. One of Spain's greatest redsDrink 2021 - 2037Tim Atkin MW, TimAtkin.com (December 2021)
Drink 2021 - 2037
Tim Atkin MW, timatkin.com (Dec 2021)
Sarah Jane Evans MW 95/100
A textbook example of controlled, red fruited elegance, though more restrained perhaps than the glorious 2009. Undoubtedly a big, generous wine, with sumptuously ripe fruit, vibrant with redcurrants and fine cedar. The essence of Unico is its ageing, and as a result the tannins are are well matured and despite its years it retains a youthful freshness. The wine spent a 18 months in barriques and then a further three and a half years in 220hl tinas (vats), followed by extensive bottle ageing.Drink 2021 - 2031Sarah Jane Evans MW, Decanter.com (July 2021)
Drink 2021 - 2037
Sarah Jane Evans MW, Decanter.com (Jul 2021)
Luis Gutiérrez 96/100
The 2012 Único is released 10 years after the harvest. They produced it with the grapes from 40 of the 210 hectares of vineyards they have, with a total of 55 separate plots and 19 different soils. It's mostly 95% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that are cooled down for 24 hours and then fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts. Malolactic fermentation was in stainless steel and the aging in 225-liter oak barrels and 20,000-liter oak vats for a long time as this was bottled in June 2018.2012 is a concentrated year, warm and dry with some rain at the end of September that helped the end of the ripening process of healthy grapes with lots of color and ripe tannins. The wine has a ripe nose, with intoxicating notes of black fruit, fresh meat and blood, a spicy touch from the American oak and an earthy twist. It's a voluptuous and decadent vintage for Vega Sicilia, for those that favor years like 2006, a bit atypical, or 1999.The wine finished with 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.88 and 5.1 grams of acidity (tartaric). 88,188 bottles, 3,537 magnums, 328 double magnums, 55 imperials and five Salmanazar produced.Drink 2024 - 2035Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (December 2021)
Drink 2021 - 2037
Luis Gutiérrez, RobertParker.com (Dec 2021)
James Suckling 97/100
Berry, smoke, violet and sandalwood aromas follow through to a full, layered palate that shows super polished tannins that are caressing and long. It’s tight and very long. Give it two or three years to soften.Drink after 2023james_suckling, jamessuckling_com (October 2021)
Drink 2021 - 2037
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (Oct 2021)

About this wine

Tempranillo/Tinto Fino

A high quality red wine grape that is grown all over Spain except in the hot South - it is known as Tinto Fino in Ribera del Duero, Cencibel in La Mancha and Valdepenas and Ull de Llebre in Catalonia. Its spiritual home is in Rioja and Navarra where it constitutes around 70% of most red blends.

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