Vega Sicilia Unico Question

I haven’t had much experience with Vega Sicilia Unico. Curious, is there a bad vintage of Unico at all? Since Vega Sicilia only makes their Unico in non-poor vintages, are there any vintages in the past 30 years that we should avoid?

Thanks!

-Juyuan

Idonknow, I’ve never met one I didn’t love !

Whatever they do is usually good but some years are just much better than others.

To your question, you could do better than the 1980, 1983, 1998, and 2003. Not that they’re horrible, but if you have a chance to try them against some better years, you’ll see the dif.

I have an '86 that is standing upright I plan to have over Labor Day weekend.

Any serving suggestions? I planned to decant but not much ahead of drinking.

The only bottle I ever had was the 1970, which I drank within a few years of its 1995 release. Incredibly voluptuous wine, especially considering it was more than 25 years old.

Hi Robert. I’m fortunate to have drunk a lot of Unico, as it’s been one of my favorite wines from when I first became interested in wine. I had a bottle of the '62 last night, which is one of my favorite vintages.

You’re opening the '86 at a good point, as vintage Unico usually takes at least 20 years, and often 25-30 years, to begin to show its full character. I was invited last December to Spain for a 30 vintage tasting of Unico, all out of magnum. That was pretty great. Specifically on the 1986, it was a terrific wine, somewhat reminiscent of a Pauillac in weight and structure. The tannins had become fine. There was some Asian spice and cinnamon as well as some black cherry and chocolate. A powerful and intense wine. As you will be opening a bottle, I expect that you may have even more tertiary character. If the bottle is in good nick, it should be lovely.

While I didn’t watch them decant the magnums, Unico usually throws off a fair amount of sediment. You will almost certainly need to decant it. For the 1986, I would probably decant it about an hour ahead of time. It shouldn’t take too long to open up.

Ken

Ken, sincere thank you for sharing your experience. Decanting about an hour ahead sounds just right to me. I will report back.

Decant one to three hours. I drink them at 20-25 years typically.

Exactly what I did and experienced too, when they were just $160 each.

Ken,

Did you taste the 1981?
I’m contemplating buying a bottle since it was the year I started my workshop.

Peter

Hi Peter,

Yes…I’ve had the 1981 many times. By Unico standards, it’s not as powerful as other vintages but elegant. It’s lovely and I’m always looking for more. At the 150th anniversary of the bodega a couple of years ago, that was one of the three vintages of Unico that they served. If it’s a good bottle, you won’t be disappointed. The 1970, mentioned above, and the 1968 and 1962, are bigger wines, but the 1981 is very fine. Agiain, not a wine that you need to decant way in advance because it’s 20+ years old and opens up reasonably reliably.

Ken

Hi Ken,

Very helpful. Thanks!

I was always under the impression Unicos do not throw off a lot of sediment.

Peter, I’ll echo Ken’s comments. The 81 has always been a great drinking vintage for me. Clearly not 68 or 70, but a delicious wine. We had an extensive Unico tasting in May, and it stood up well to the heavyweight vintages.

I can find them now at $900 here regionally.

Ken[/quote]
I was always under the impression Unicos do not throw off a lot of sediment.[/quote]

Your impression is an accurate one. Because the elevage is so long, they don’t have tons of sludge, but they typically still have enough sediment that I prefer to decant them.

In answer to the first question, I have never had one I didn’t like either. I was particularly surprised by an excellent bottle of the 2002 that we had in Tokyo of all places - a colleague threw caution to the wind in a rooftop restaurant but it was captivating at only 12 years old.

Another “surprise” bottle was a 1999 that a madman brought along to a blind tasting. It was a post-tasting dinner (we formally tasted wines from 20:00 to 22:00 then had dinner nearby with our own bottles) and this guy had come along to the formal tasting - we had never met him before - so we invited him to the dinner. To our surprise he said he had a bottle and so he even covered it up and brought it along. It was absolutely fantastic, I can tell you, full of life and spices, but we were still shocked to uncover it and find out that this individual carries bottles of Unico around just in case. That wasn’t his only contribution either - he ended the night in a drinking contest with a mexican golf professional who was in Madrid on his honeymoon. We have never seen him since.

A friend has had a share at VS for the last few years so I have been lucky enough to pick up a few recent vintages for about €140 a bottle. It sounds like I have not developed the patience of this group though - my oldest is a 1998 which is not going to live to see 21 years by any stretch.