Now for a challenge...

I have a bottle of non-vintage Vega Sicilia "Unico", Ribera del Duero, bottle #008008.
It has been cellared properly, to my knowledge. Any info as to what I might expect upon opening it?
Thanks for your knowledge!

Just found another detail: on the front it says "Reserva Especial".

[David M. Bueker]

It's generally a great wine. Which vintage?

Have looked all over the bottle, but can't find one, just the bottle number, which is on the front label.
Any suggestions would be helpful!

According to a quick internet search, the Unico Reserva Especial is in fact NV and they have not always been very open about which vintages were in the wine.

More here:

http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/vie ... a+Especial

[David M. Bueker]

Shoot forgot about that version. I was thinking the Valbuena.

Anyway, the wine should be really good in any event. I would not bury it in the cellar.

A photo would help! That the wine is good goes without saying but there has been a number of releases, some better than others, some perhaps not demanding but rewarding time in cellar.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

Or, if no photo at hand, a quote from the "Hemos seleccionado para la Reserva Especial del ano XXXX, XX barricas de las cosechas ???? que hacen un total de ???? botellas."

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

I'm trying to attach photos of the front label. Hope it works. Not terribly conversant with doing this...so far: nothing!
Well, I figured it out...too many pixels. Don't know how to adjust that on my camera.
Wish I could access the old Rogove forums...I had requested a TN on this wine when I acquired it several years ago, and somehow it went missing from the bottle. Should've had it in a notebook instead of attached to the card on the bottle.

You can change the pixel size by opening the file with MS Paint and click on "Resize".

Tried that, but can't get the photo from "paint" to download as attachment. Every time it just reverts back to my pictures in Documents. I'm not as great on this machine as I'd like to be.

[Robin Garr]

Tried that, but can't get the photo from "paint" to download as attachment. Every time it just reverts back to my pictures in Documents. I'm not as great on this machine as I'd like to be.

Marlyne, if you would like to email the photo to me as an attachment in a post to robingarr@gmail.com, I will be happy to resize it for you in PhotoShop and give you a link that you can use to post it.

Meanwhile, I got to taste the Reserve Especial over lunch at the Vega Sicilia winery a long time ago - well, late '90s - and in a moment of hubris, the wine maker served it alongside a La Tache. The Unico showed great, but the guy was canny: His wine was ready to go, while the La Tache was young, harsh and tannic. It was still quite a moment in a number of perspectives.

Robin,
was it Javier (Ausas) that did that? It sounds very much like him!

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

[Robin Garr]

Here is a look at the label of Marlyne's Vega Sicilia. Any further comments?

unico.jpg

It's clearly the non-vintage Reserva Especial. Ready to drink? Decant? We're somewhat handicapped by not knowing when it was bottled, but I assume (1) it doesn't look ancient; (2) it's not going around the bend any time soon, and (3) I'd rather decant at the beginning of the meal and enjoy watching it open up in the glass than decant earlier in the day and miss its evolution.

Your thoughts?

The whole point of these special non-vintage releases is that they are blended to be drinkable upon release. I would decant this at the start of a meal and enjoy watching its evolution.

-Paul W.

Thank you all (especially Robin, for putting the label online) for all your help. We will be opening the now infamous bottle next weekend, and will post our findings. Not as skilled as many of our Forum members, so probably won't be able to distinguish between berries and fruit, but I'll try my best. Really looking forward to it!
Thanks again!!!!!

Well...we opened it. The cork could have been fragile, so I used an "ah-so" rather than a regular corkscrew, to avoid breaking it. I was right doing that, at least. Sniffed, and it didn't have a pleasing aroma. I poured a small bit into a tasting glass; the first sniff smelled a bit off, but the second had a relation to a skunk! Literally. The taste was off, but not really vinegar...just off.
I went through these same steps with my friend, who is much more savvy than I; he thought the bottle could be "corked".
Whatever the problem, it was a potentially great wine that, through my cellaring or that of the people who had it before me, or a bottling issue, or just too much age (although it should not have been that)...we opened a '96 BV Tapestry Reserve, and it was excellent.
Thank you all for your help and advice...sorry the wine itself didn't follow through.

Sounds corked, too bad. One of my 94 Montelenas showed corked the other night, one of the bottles I've had stored properly since release. Oh well, one of the misfortunes of wine drinking on a serious level.

Thank you for the sympathy and empathy. It helps.