Top Spanish red or just OTT? Vega Sicilia Valbuena 2004

Vega Sicilia Valbuena 2004 (Ribera del Duero, Spain)

$300

‘Did John Duval make this’

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Suffice to say that, like many of John’s wines, this is one big, rich, oak framed red. It’s full, it’s oaky, it’s dense. More to the point, it is quite a different wine to its older brother the Unico, which is famously a wine that will live for as long as the drinker can leave it for.

Still, the question has to be asked with a wine like this – is it too much?

That cough syrup/plum liqueur fruit and deep oak richness can be almost overbearing in it’s ostentatious OTT intensity, the evocative palate flirting with overripe fruit before coming back to earth with a tannic crescendo.

It is, in other words, a dramatic wine, and one that not everyone will love. I didn’t, at first, yet that’s also part of the appeal – it is a wine that will monster you in its intensity, with an answer on whether you like it or not only apparent after finishing a glass or two.

Ultimately I picked option a) and ticked the box that said ‘damn good’, as beyond all that oak and alcohol lies a deeply profound wine – almost dry Port like in its intensity and length, with that same black coal fruit and flashy vibrance that the finest Portugese fortifieds enjoy. 

I loved it. I loved the length, the stony finish, the biting tannins. It was a wine you could treat as an equal – super ripe, super tannic, super quality.

Perhaps the only question remains – is it too much or (Goldilocks style) just enough of a very good thing?

Source: Tasting:
Tasted: Nov 2013
Score: 18.5/20, 94/100
Would I buy it? Yes. Keep it in the cellar though.