I like the intensity to this, with dark tar and smoky notes followed by graphite, tobacco, bitter cacao and dark fruit. Powerful yet tight and compact, with firm and polished tannins. Structured and so long. Tasted from magnum. Try after 2023..

The wine has a ripe nose, with intoxicating notes of black fruit, fresh meat and blood, a spicy touch from the American oak and an earthy twist. It's a voluptuous and decadent vintage for Vega Sicilia, for those that favor years like 2006, a bit atypical, or 1999.

This is at once fresh and elegant on first impression, with lovely hints of fragrant Turkish bazaar spices, game and dried mint lacing the crème de cassis, violet, and black and red licorice notes. But gliding across the palate, buoyed by fresh acidity and sculpted tannins, this expands to show deep notes of tarry smoke, fig cake, espresso and iron alongside the appealing fruit and spice.

The 2012 Único from magnum showed less ripe tannins in the context of other vintages like 2014 or 2004, as the year was very warm and dry and the plants got blocked and the tannins didn't ripen perfectly. There is a little more alcohol, and it's powerful but will always have a bit of rusticity.

A textbook example of controlled, red fruited elegance, though more restrained perhaps than the glorious 2009. Undoubtedly a big, generous wine, with sumptuously ripe fruit, vibrant with redcurrants and fine cedar. The essence of Unico is its ageing, and as a result the tannins are are well matured and despite its years it retains a youthful freshness.