Vega Sicilia

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Bodegas Vega Sicilia is a Spanish winery in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. The vineyards of the estate are in the Ribera del Duero wine-growing region , which has the status of a Denominacion de Origen .

The Alvarez family, the current owners of the estate, are members of the Primum Familiae Vini association .

The wines

Vega Sicilia currently has almost 1000 hectares of land; approx. 240 hectares are dedicated to viticulture. A study found that the soils dedicated to viticulture can be divided into 19 types. The best vineyards are on north-facing slopes. However, the winery also has cultivation areas on the alluvial land in the valley floor. Tempranillo (also known as Tinto Fino or Tinto Pais in northern Spain) is the leading variety among the grape varieties grown. The Tempranillo is supplemented by adding Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Carmenère and a small portion of the white Albillo variety.

Vega Sicilia offers three wines:

  • Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial is the most exclusive wine and is a blend of several vintages .
  • Vega Sicilia Unico Gran Reserva is a vintage wine that is marketed after ten years of aging at the earliest. The blend consists of at least 80% Tempranillo and is supplemented by adding Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot and a small proportion of the white Albillo grape. The alcoholic fermentation takes place in wooden vats. After malolactic fermentation, the wine rests for half a year. Only the best barrels are selected as the basis for further processing by means of a sensory check. The almost two-year aging takes place in new barriques made from French oak. The wine then matures in used barrels made primarily of American oak for at least five years. After the expansion, the unfiltered wine is aged in bottles for at least three years before it is marketed.
  • Valbuena 5 ° is Vega Sicilia's second wine . As a rule, younger grape varieties are chosen to produce this wine . In years in which the Unico is not launched due to a lack of quality (for example in 1992, 1997, 2000 and 2002) its vine material is also used in the production of Valbuena. The Valbuena is only brought onto the market in the 5th year after the harvest, a fact that is expressed by the addition of 5 ° to the name. A quality that was already marketed after three years, the Valbuena 3 ° , has not been offered for a few years.

history

In 1848 (other sources speak of 1842), the Basque landowner Don Toribio Lecanda acquired the 2000 hectare Pago de la Vega Santa Cecilia y Carrascal from the insolvent Marqués de Valbuena de Duero. The name of the property was later shortened to Vega Sicilia.

At first the property was used for agriculture and only Don Lecanda's son, Don Eloy Lecanda y Chaves, who took over the entire property on June 22, 1859, founded the winery in 1864. In Bordeaux, he acquired 18,000 young seedlings of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec, Merlot and Pinot Noir grape varieties at the renowned Beguerie vineyard school . However, production went into base wines for making brandy and ratafia . Although his products had a good reputation and Don Lecanda was able to establish himself as a supplier to the royal court (he received the Grand Cross of the Orden de Isabel la Católica in 1880 ), he ran into financial difficulties in 1888. He took Pascual Herrero Bux and Emilia Coca Aguirre, his wife, into the management as a partner. At that time Pascual Herrero already owned more than 80% of the company shares. His son Antonio Herrero Velázquez also bought the rest of the shares in 1903. He leased the winery to Cosme Palacio, a winemaker from Rioja . At the beginning of the 20th century, Rioja was a victim of phylloxera and Palacio was looking for alternatives to keep the wine business going. He left the day-to-day business on Vega Sicilia to his cellar master Domingo Garramiola (1878–1933) (also known as Txomin ). The trained oenologist immediately implemented his ideas for modern winemaking, renewed the storage barrels and attached great importance to hygiene.

With the 1915 or 1917 vintage, Garramiola presented the wines for the first time that established the winery's international reputation. In the early days, the Herrero brothers gave away the bottles to befriended aristocrats and members of the royal court, thus ensuring that Vega Sicilia's reputation was spread quickly. It can be assumed that the majority of the wines were brought to Rioja as anonymous barrels and sold there under the more internationally known area name. After the phylloxera crisis in Rioja was overcome, Garramiola stayed on Vega Sicilia and introduced bottling on the estate. The wine became known to a wide audience when the vintages 1917 and 1918 received important prizes at wine exhibitions. The awards of the Exposició Internacional de Barcelona in 1929 are considered a turning point .

When Garramiola died in 1933, his longtime assistant Martiniano Renedo took over responsibility for winemaking. However, the Herrero brothers did not ensure that production was expanded in line with their good reputation. In 1952 they sold the property to the Prodes company. Four years later, Jesús Anadón entered the service of Vega Sicilia. He took on responsibility for the basement as well as for day-to-day business. As the director of the house, he worked hard to establish the Ribera del Duero Denomination of Origin. Anadón remained in service when Miguel Neumann Swaton, an industrialist who emigrated to Venezuela in 1935 , acquired Vega Sicilia in 1966.

In 1982 David Alvarez bought the winery. After Jesús Anadón retired in 1985, Pablo Alvarez managed the fortunes of the estate and appointed Mariano García, who had worked at the winery since 1968, as cellar master. The Alvarez family invested a lot in modernizing the cellar and in upgrading the vineyards, which were also significantly expanded.

Since 1992 the family has also expanded into other wine-growing regions. First she founded the Bodegas Alión winery and one year later the Hungarian Tokaj winery Tokaj Oremus was founded . In 2001 the family founded the Bodega Pintia in the Toro region . In 2010, it was announced that Vega Sicilia together with Benjamin de Rothschild , one of the owners of the Bordeaux Château Lafite Rothschild built a winery in the Rioja. For this purpose, the partners acquired around 110 hectares of vineyards in San Vicente de la Sonsierra .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bodegas Vega Sicilia Macán 2013 . Favorite-weine.de

Web links

literature

  • Jan Read: Spain's Wines 2005/06 . 7th edition, Hallwag Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3-7742-6962-9 .
  • John Radford: The New Spain . 1st edition, Mitchell Beazley, ISBN 1-84000-928-4 .
  • John Radford: Wine Landscape Spain . Hallwag Verlag, Bern and Stuttgart, ISBN 3-444-10553-3 .
  • Jeremy Watson: The NEW & CLASSICAL wines of Spain . 1st edition, Montagud Editores Barcelona, ISBN 84-7212-087-2 .