2021 | Vega Sicilia | Alion

The Alión 2021 from Vega Sicilia is a Ribera del Duero red wine known for its elegance and depth. It's characterized by a bright cherry color and a blend of spicy, mineral, and ripe fruit aromas, including plums and red cherries. The wine is full-bodied and long-lasting, with a slightly robust character and a mineral-edged finish. 

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The vintage released in 2025 is the 2021 Alión, a year to remember, one of the best in recent times; it was relaxed and textbook in all senses, with snow in the beginning of the year, a mild spring disturbed only by frost in Pesquera that didn't affect other villages, a relatively cool summer that slowed things down, and the grapes ripened to perfection without rain after September. They used grapes from 13 different villages throughout the Ribera del Duero, 130 hectares. The grapes are cooled down for 24 hours, and once destemmed, they are put in the oak and stainless steel vats, where they undergo a five-day cold soak and then native fermentation through a "pied de cuve." It has 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.81 and 4.8 grams of acidity (tartaric). It's very fresh and fruit-driven, with the balance and elegance of the cooler years, a little austere, with very elegant and polished tannins and a different quality, when the grapes ripen slowly. They believe 2024 has the potential to be like 2021, after the 2022 and 2023 vintages were a lot more challenging. This is a large production of 244,244 bottles, 7,075 magnums and some larger formats. It was bottled in June 2023.

• James Suckling: A pretty deep but fresh and harmonious wine that can be consumed early. It’s from a blend of Ribera del Duero vineyards. Fascinating aromas of fine spices, dark chocolate, dark cherries, blackberries and cedar wood. Medium- to full-bodied with fine, chalky tannins and a lasting finish. Impeccable balance. A textbook Ribera del Duero that gives a panoramic view of the region.

Producer Information

Alion was launched with the 1991 vintage by the famous Vega Sicilia estate. Inspired by the "modern classic" style of top Bordeaux, owner Pablo Alvarez wished to adapt this style of wine to the unique climate and soils in the western Ribera del Duero. Around half the grapes come from Vega Sicilia vineyards, the other half from Alion's own vineyards near Penafiel. The wine is made by Javier Ausas, head winemaker of Vega Sicilia, at Alion's dedicated, state-of-the-art winery. Alion is certainly a modern wine, an opulent and seductive 100% Tempranillo aged for 14 months in new French oak barrels, but - as one would expect from Vega Sicilia - there is nothing over-the-top about the wine. Not overripe, overextracted or overoaked, it is all about elegance, harmony, class...and sheer hedonistic pleasure.

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