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The December 2022 Auction: Part 1
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1 / 2Lot 1110
Estimate: $1,600
OWC. 52 Barricas de las cosechas de 1994, 1995, y 2000. #001948, #001950, #001949.
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Collection name
Reviews
98WA
"The NV 2014 Release Reserva Especial is a blend of different harvests, and therefore sold without a harvest year. This 2014 Release is a blend of 1994, 1995 and 2000, three very good years for Unico. Reserva Especial is the most Burgundian, classical and reminiscent of the old-style Vega Sicilias of yesteryear, a more subtle, baroque wine, aged for a long time in wood. It has a high level of complexity and a touch of volatility, which clearly tells you that this is not a style for everyone. This is not a fruit-driven wine. It’s a tertiary wine with a developed, complex bouquet consisting of hints of leather, earth, spices and iodine, and a subtle, elegant style. This was bottled in 2010 and is one of the best modern-day Reserva Especial vintages. By the way now that we’re talking about the best Reserva Especial, if you ever have the chance to drink a bottle of the 1990 release – that is the best one I’ve ever had. 15,500 bottles of this prodigious wine were produced. Make sure you grab at least one! Drink now-2025. I tasted the latest three vintages of Valbuena, to get up to speed with what’s in the market. If there’s a wine in their collection that has seen a huge improvement since 1998, it is Valbuena, which had been kind of neglected since the launch of Alion in the early 1990s. For Valbuena, they do not want a second wine in the Bordeaux style. But with the competitive Alion breathing down its neck and the pressure of its big brother, it felt a bit out of place. So they decided to look back at the vineyards: they studied the soils and saw why Unico and Valbuena had been (empirically) produced from separated plots."
Region
Red
Country
Score
"The NV 2014 Release Reserva Especial is a blend of different harvests, and therefore sold without a harvest year. This 2014 Release is a blend of 1994, 1995 and 2000, three very good years for Unico. Reserva Especial is the most Burgundian, classical and reminiscent of the old-style Vega Sicilias of yesteryear, a more subtle, baroque wine, aged for a long time in wood. It has a high level of complexity and a touch of volatility, which clearly tells you that this is not a style for everyone. This is not a fruit-driven wine. It’s a tertiary wine with a developed, complex bouquet consisting of hints of leather, earth, spices and iodine, and a subtle, elegant style. This was bottled in 2010 and is one of the best modern-day Reserva Especial vintages. By the way now that we’re talking about the best Reserva Especial, if you ever have the chance to drink a bottle of the 1990 release – that is the best one I’ve ever had. 15,500 bottles of this prodigious wine were produced. Make sure you grab at least one! Drink now-2025. I tasted the latest three vintages of Valbuena, to get up to speed with what’s in the market. If there’s a wine in their collection that has seen a huge improvement since 1998, it is Valbuena, which had been kind of neglected since the launch of Alion in the early 1990s. For Valbuena, they do not want a second wine in the Bordeaux style. But with the competitive Alion breathing down its neck and the pressure of its big brother, it felt a bit out of place. So they decided to look back at the vineyards: they studied the soils and saw why Unico and Valbuena had been (empirically) produced from separated plots."
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Spain has the largest area under vine of any country and a deep tradition of oak-aged reds. Tempranillo-based wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero, alongside Priorat's Garnacha and Carinena, anchor its fine-wine reputation.
On Spain's high central plateau, Ribera del Duero makes powerful, concentrated Tempranillo (locally Tinto Fino). Wide day-night temperature swings yield deeply colored, structured and age-worthy reds.
Produces powerful, deeply colored Tempranillo from Spain's high plateau, prized for concentration and structure.
Spain's noble red grape, producing structured, savory wines of red fruit and leather that respond beautifully to oak aging in Rioja and Ribera del Duero.