Vega Sicilia Unico - 2016 (750ml)

It is the Vega Sicilia flagship. The qualities of the Tempranillo and cabernet sauvignon in different proportions are assembled to perfection in this wine. Each provides a differentiating factor that makes the wine great in every vintage.

The vines are grown on plots where the land is located at the point between the slopes down from the wasteland and the alluvial plain. The soil nearest the surface is made out of fine colluvial deposits from the hillside with small fragment of limestone. There is abundant quartz gravel deeper down in a sandy main soil. There are many angular limestone boulders on the surface.

Red wine made in controlled fermentation using native yeast in wooden tanks. Malolactic fermentation also takes place in wood.

99 points Vinous

Defined by Vega Sicilia’s extended aging regime, the 2016 Único from Ribera del Duero opens with fine oak, mocha, soft vanilla and chocolate framing a core of black fruit, prune and cedar. Complex yet restrained aromatically, it already shows the clockwork precision that has long been one of the house’s defining mechanisms. On the palate, the real magic lies in the meeting of that élevage with the Duero’s delicate chalky texture, creating a polished and seamless feel. The 2016 vintage, marked by finesse and precision of flavor, finds here an elegant expression, even if the élevage still competes with the year itself in shaping the wine’s singularity. Long and persistent, with lingering notes of refined oak, this is the ABC of Ribera elegance at the highest level. Time, however, may yet tilt the balance in favor of the vintage. - By Joaquín Hidalgo, September 2026

99 points Robert Parker

The 2016 Único is perfumed and elegant, showcasing a very good vintage in the region. Winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga started in 2015—a powerful year—and he remembers 2016 as a very balanced year, with higher yields and finer-boned wines. The winter was mild, and there was a cooler-than-average spring and a warm summer. September was dry, which provided healthy grapes and balanced ripening. The harvest started on the 22nd of September and finished on the 11th of October. The wine is 96% Tinto Fino and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, with 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.82 and 4.8 grams of acidity. It has the old Vega perfume: intoxicating, complex and nuanced, full of personality, and it has a very energetic palate, vibrant and fresh, not lacking power but with lots of elegance. The wine is released 10 years after the harvest, combining time in new and used American and French oak barrels and 20,000-liter oak vats, and it obviously spends plenty of time in bottle. This is a monumental vintage of Único. A total of 92,292 bottles, 3,695 magnums and some larger formats were produced. It was bottled in May 2022. - Luis Gutiérrez