Alión 2017

The 2017 Alión, the only wine produced here, comes from a challenging year marked by spring frost and a warm and dry end of the season, so they reduced the amount of new oak by 8%. It fermented with indigenous yeasts, and 10% of the volume aged in concrete, completely unoaked. The change in the oak regimen helped with the style of the vintage, which was marked by the frost that hit part of the Alión vineyards. Furthermore, the end of the season was warm and dry, and they had to work to control ripeness and power and perhaps the possibility of more aggressive tannins. It's a classical Alión, with some developed aromas, juicy and round but not heavy, with just a tad of earthy rusticity. With time, it develops more balsamic notes and hints of licorice. 230,032 bottles, 7,04 magnums, 614 double magnums and a handful of bigger sizes were produced. It was bottled in June 2019.

Lots of chocolate and berry with some coffee-bean and vanilla undertones. It’s full and layered with plenty of fruit, round tannins and pleasing complexity of smoked and toasted wood. Tar undertone. Very drinkable now, but better after 2022.

Always produced as a pan-Ribera cuvée, with 50% of the grapes bought from growers, Alión sources fruit from Anguix, La Aguilera, La Horra, Moradillo, Nava and Padilla as well as parent company Vega Sicilia. 2017 was challenging as a vintage, but the crop was only down 15% overall. Aged in 72% new wood, 10% of which was American to add some sweetness in a dry year. Youthful, perfumed and sweet, with flavours of blackberry and black cherry, firmish tannins, a sprinkling of dried herbs and a long, refreshing finish. 2022-30.