Italiano
The Lord of Spain: Vega Sicilia (1)
This wine is a legend among Spanish reds, an Ambassador of the greatness of this land and its centuries of traditions. The extraordinary Bodega della Ribera del Duero, located in the central northern region of the Iberian peninsula, has had an ancient and romanticized history ever since it was founded, in 1864, by the legendary Don Eloy Lacanda y Chaves on the left bank of the Duero River, between Valbuena and Quintanilla.
The name ‘Sicilia’ has nothing to do with the Italian island-region but derives from Cecilia, the name of the original owner of the hill where most of the original vineyards were planted, while ‘Vega’ means ‘fertile plain’.
Vega Sicilia is a legend because it is unquestionably recognized as one of the best wines in the world. It is a legend because of its almost infinite capacity to age and continue to improve. It is a legend because each vintage is a small mystery with each harvest always interpreted in a different way. And it is always and only the enologist of the bodega who decides when the wine is ready to face the test of the most demanding palates. The wines ages for years, sometimes decades, in barrels before it is bottled to age further in order to become the legend is it known to be.
The wine was created in response to a world crisis the great Bordeaux wines were experiencing at the time. Originally, the same grapes were used as the French wine, Cabernet and Merlot, with the addition of Malbec, Carmenère and Pinot Noir. Later it underwent a radical change to bring it closer to the land through the elimination of the three latter grapes and adding, as the base grape, Tinto Fino, the local name for the national standard-bearer Tempranillo.
Today it is a bold, carnal and immense wine for demanding palates that want to subject their taste buds to this whirlwind of sensations.
