Vega Sicilia Valbuena 1998

Deeply saturated ruby with a nose that earns your attention, raspberry skin, mineral dust, truffle, cedar, coffee and a wild, gamey thread running underneath. Dense and gripping on entry, yet a vivid seam of acidity cuts right through, lending a definition more reminiscent of a great mature Bordeaux than anything from the Duero. Tangy red berries, smoked meat and iron-flecked minerals extend across a long, focused finish. Concentrated well beyond what the vintage typically offered, yet there's no sense of heaviness or excess. So distinctly itself that it was identifiable blind, the only real question being whether this was the Valbuena or the Unico.