2017 | Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia | Macan Clasico

Bright ruby-colored, with some red fruit and lactic notes complemented by licorice, spices, smoke, coffee, vanilla, balsamic, smoked meat, sweet fruit, and chocolate. Elegant and harmonious, it is medium-bodied with balanced acidity and good length. It’s quite approachable and pleasant to drink with some fine tannins.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The second wine is the 2017 Macán Clásico, which since 2016 has been vinified in the new "cuverie" that allows for a more precise extraction for each plot fermenting in stainless steel. In 2017, they reduced the new oak to 50%, and 10% of the volume was aged in American oak barrels crafted by the Vega Sicilia coopers. They were also more selective with the press wine. The élevage lasted 12 months, and the wine was kept in bottle for no less than 18 months. They lost two-thirds of the crop due to the terrible frost, and the end of the season was warm and dry with an early harvest. They did a softer everything, and the wine has a creamy and gentle quality, ripe without excess, a little in the style of the 2015, with finer tannins, a fine thread and texture and a long, dry and supple finish. This is definitely a warmer year for Macán Clásico but a triumph over the adverse conditions of the year.

• James Suckling: A chewy 2017 Rioja with blackberry, oyster shell and dark chocolate. It’s full-bodied and tannic, but there’s a linear feel to it with fresh acidity. Give it time to soften. Try after 2021.

Producer Information

The worst-kept secret in European wine circles for the last 2 years has been Vega Sicilia’s expansion into Rioja. Vega Sicilia and Benjamin de Rothschild began the project 10 years ago, with the discreet but steady acquisition of multiple vineyard plots from smallholder farmers. In this way, they quietly built up what is now a sizeable holding of 120 hectares, all within 10 km of the village of San Vicente in the Rioja Alta. In the true style of Vega Sicilia, their purchases concentrated on the very best ‘terroir’, with stony calcareous clay soils, complex warm and cool mesoclimatic influences, and deep-rooted Tempranillo vines of 25 to 80 years in age. MACAN is the name chosen for the wines, derived from a traditional name for the people of this sub-region of Rioja. Each year, they aim to produce two wines, MACAN and MACAN CLASICO, "a first and a second wine following the Bordeaux tradition of classification by tasting the different lots and bottling a first wine with more potential and a second wine more expressive and easy to drink when young." This is perhaps the most notable influence of the Rothschild family on the project, because otherwise all viticulture and winemaking is in the hands of the Vega Sicilia team.

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