2016 | Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia | Macan

Opaque ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes black raspberry, cherry cola, potpourri and exotic spices, and smoky mineral and vanilla nuances build in the glass. Appealingly sweet, palate-coating red and blue fruit preserve, spicecake, mocha and candied lavender flavors show excellent depth as well as energy and back-end lift. Finishes impressively long, smoky and precise, with polished tannins adding framework and closing grip.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 2016 Macán saw a new vinification by plot with the introduction of their new fermentation room. The Tempranillo came from selected vineyards from their 92 hectares; it fermented in oak vats and matured in 4,000-liter and barriques (50/50) for some 16 months and was kept in bottle for three years before being released. They think this 2016 is finally the style they were looking for, a wine with density and freshness. 2016 was the first year they vinified and aged from start to finish in the new winery, and they believe that gave them better control over the fermentations. 2016 is a year with more freshness than 2015, and they are trying to achieve wines with more tension and less power and oak than in the beginning. This could very well be the finest vintage of Macán so far. The grapes were picked between September 17th and October 3rd. 87,792 bottles, 2,570 magnums and some larger formats were produced.

• James Suckling: Sweet-berry, lavender and blueberry aromas follow through to a full body with round, juicy tannins and a flavorful finish. A little hard now. 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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