2018 Alion (Vega Sicilia) Ribera del Duero DO

JS96 Fresh and very floral with violets and berries. Blackberries and orange peel, too. Medium-to full-bodied with firm, linear tannins. Excellent length and structure. Seriously structured, Better after 2024, but already beautiful.
WA95+ The 2018 Alión follows the path of the 2016: it is fresh and elegant and from a cooler (more Atlantic) vintage with more rain than the average and a relatively late harvest between September 28th and October 12th. They used 80% new barrels, with up to 10% made of American oak looking to (in their own words) give more sucrosity and sweetness to the wine, as it’s a more vertical, tense and elegant expression of Alión. Part of the wine matured in concrete (something they started in 2016), and in 2021 they are experimenting with a 4,000-liter Rousseau foudre, as they want to keep working the texture and freshness. The wine is ripe at 15% alcohol and has a pH of 3.8 and a mellow 4.6 grams of acidity, round and soft. The wine matured until it was bottled in June 2020. The truth is that the wine comes through as subtle, elegant and balanced, with very integrated oak and a nice texture. It’s one of the finest vintages for Alión. 257,257 bottles, 7,005 magnums and some larger formats produced.
DEC95 Vega Sicilia’s other expression of Ribera del Duero. Originally purchased grapes were used to build a modern style; today the winery owns almost 70% of the vineyard and is aiming for 100%. A focus on precision in winery saw grapes going into 42 separate deposits. Oak has been reined back from 100% new; with just 10% American oak. Very fine floral aromatics and an equally refined palate. Dark fruits lifted by citrus freshness, a vivid style, finishing intense and long with juicy plums. Drinking Window 2024 – 2030
Estate Notes: Alión comes from carefully selected terroirs located in the very best areas of the Ribera del Duero DO region. The soils complement each other, and allied with the same winemaking process used in Vega Sicilia, they have produced wines with a firm structure. The 2018 vintage reflects weather influenced by the Atlantic, with higher than average precipitation, cool temperatures, and a relatively late harvest, between 28 September and 12 October.
We used our Wine Making Facility for the first time, with tanks at half the capacity, enabling greater precision during extraction. We increased the effect of new oak on this vintage by up to 80 %, with American oak representing 10 %, targeting a more generous wine. 2018 was a fresh, Atlantic-influenced vintage, giving this Alión a more vertical, longer, and elegant expression.Alcohol by volume 15%. Varietal is Tinto Fino. Average age of vineyard 38 years. Vineyard surface area 70 ha (Padilla de Duero, Valbuena de Duero and Pesquera de Duero). Altitude 750 meters