Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5º 2020 Magnum

The 2020 Valbuena all comes from the Vega Sicilia estate and is a blend of Tinto Fino and 3% Merlot from vines close to the river. Gonzalo Iturriaga uses 70% new wood here, 15% of it American, but then switches to older foudres. Floral and elegant, partly because of the 100mm of rain in September, it's a focused, comparatively forward red with bramble, red cherry and blackberry fruit, scented oak spices, a hint of rocket and a refined, tapering finish. 2026-40. 

Valbuena 5 used to be the baby Unico, and nowadays it is more like its younger brother with a lot of resemblance and just a bit less depth and tannins. Valbuena 5 comes from younger vines and sometimes different parcels from Unico. On the palate, this is more open and linear, while Unico is more profound and vertical. Notes of iron, blackberries, cedar, minerals and cocoa powder. Medium- to full-bodied with melted tannins and a long, long finish. Drinkable from 2025, but will hold for years. (Zekun Shuai)

The 2020 Valbuena is from a year marked by COVID-19 and lots of rain before the harvest, which resulted in a more ethereal wine, with 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.9 and 4.45 grams of acidity. It was produced with 97% Tinto Fino and 3% Merlot, cooled down for 24 hours and then fermented with indigenous yeasts from a pied de cuve in stainless steel. It matured in barrel and oak vats during the first year, and in the second one, it aged exclusively in oak vats of different sizes, 8,500 and 21,000 liters. In 2020, the wine is finer-boned, it's more fluid, it's only medium-bodied, perhaps because of the dilution from the rain, and the tannins are fine-grained and polished, but there's less juiciness in the wine. It calls for food. With time in the glass, the wine opens up and becomes more aromatic, and it even seems to gain juiciness and change texture. This is a production of 186,286 bottles, 5,673 magnums and some larger formats. It was bottled in May 2023. (Luis Gutiérrez)