ALION Tempos Vega Sicilia - Ribera del Duero (Tempranillo) 2018 MAGNUM - NO DISCOUNT

Description

100% TEMPRANILLO (TINTO FINO)
Alión comes from a careful selection of terroirs dotted across the very best areas of the Ribera del Duero DO. These complementary soils, along with the same winemaking process as Vega Sicilia, have given rise to generously structured wines. 2018 was the first vintage to use Alión’s new winemaking facility, designed to give greater precision during extraction.

The Vintage
Winter temperatures were lower than normal, but they rose above average in early April, leading to a good budbreak in the second half of the month. Summer temperatures were normal for the time of year, and combined with the abundant water reserves in the soil and plenty of sunshine, the grapes ripened evenly and rapidly. Some early- September storms pushed the harvest date back and in the end the crop was picked between September 28 and October 12.

THE WINE ADVOCATE Rating 95+
Drink Date: 2023 - 2032
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. - Luis Gutiérrez, 30th Dec 2021.