ALION Tempos Vega Sicilia - Ribera del Duero 2019 Bottle (lov)

Description

Background

2019 is a potent, concentrated, juicy vintage, yet with a sensual and unctuous side too.

100% TEMPRANILLO (TINTO FINO)
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.

2019 was a drier vintage than normal, resulting in thick, concentrated skins and a firm structure in the wine. Work essentially started with extraction to develop a vintage for which we reduced total vatting for fermentation to around 11 days. The odd batch was refined before being barrelled reducing the impact of the wood and the toast is important for this type of vintage. Ageing a proportion in concrete helped us to work on the verticality and freshness of the wines.

The Vintage
The previous cycle ended with warmer temperatures than normal and the weather conditions enabled good lignification. Normal spring temperatures with precipitation enabled budbreak to occur as normal during the second fortnight of April, with no frosts recorded. Total precipitation for the entire wine-growing season was below average.

Critic
THE WINE ADVOCATE 94 points
Drink Date 2022 - 2029
The 2019 Alión was cropped from a drier vintage compared with the average, and the wines from that year tend to be powerful, concentrated and with structure. They shortened the maceration by 11 days and used concrete for part of the élevage, trying to reduce the impact from the oak in the wine. They define 2019 as a powerful, concentrated and juicy vintage, sensual and unctuous. The wine is ripe at 15% alcohol and has mellow acidity (4.4 grams) and a pH of 3.88, reflecting the warm and dry year that delivered powerful and concentrated wines, similar to the wines from 2015. It's quite fruit-driven, ripe and juicy, with abundant, slightly dusty tannins despite the limited pumping over they did to avoid extracting too much, and the maceration was also shortened. 256,526 bottles, 7,005 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2021. - Luis Gutiérrez, 31st Jan 2023

JAMES SUCKLING 95 Points
20 Jun, 2022 – Ripe, tarry plums and black cherries with violets, rocks, coffee and graphite. Refined notes of balsamic fruit and cocoa powder, too. Full-bodied and juicy with an iron fist of tannins, yet at the same time so velvety and polished. Very long, focused finish, showing lots of finesse and layers. Drinkable now, but better after 2025.