Valbuena 5º is the purest red wine expression at Vega Sicilia, aged for five years in oak and bottle, hence its name: Valbuena 5º.
This 2019 vintage was drier than the previous ones, which was evident during the grape tasting at the beginning of September. The fruit was very healthy and the skins ripened well thanks to the rain that fell at this time of year. Our obsession was to find freshness without erring on the side of over-ripeness. During the fermentation, we made sure that the extraction was gentle. Obviously, we adjusted the ageing, maturing part of the wine in oak vats during the first year to add tension to the wines. For this vintage, the presence of American oak was reduced in favour of French oak, with a preference for light toasts. In the second year, the wooden vats helped to bring out complex nuances and, above all, textural elegance.
Valbuena 5º 2019 is both succulent and muscular, taut and delicate. Expressive, elegant, lively and profound, it is a fascinating wine.
Blend: 97 % Tinto Fino and 3 % Merlot
97 James Suckling Extremely perfumed with violets and a bouquet of flowers. Then there’s blue fruits such as blueberries and raspberries. Medium-bodied with beautifully crafted tannins that give a superb mouthfeel and finesse. Refinement with depth and focus. So wonderful to drink now but it will be even better in four or five years. Try in 2027.
96 Wine Enthusiast The scent of cherry preserves and violet wafts from the glass. A cloak of elegant tannins is wrapped around Mission fig, cherry preserve, mocha, fennel pollen and rose petal flavors that evaporate into a satisfying and long-lasting finish.
95 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate The obsession in 2019 was to avoid excess ripeness and to keep the freshness, so they did a softer vinification, used larger vats for the élevage and used less American wood. The 2019 Valbuena was produced with a blend of Tinto Fino with 3% Merlot. It has 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.88 and 4.6 grams of acidity. I love the nose; it is perfumed and subtle. And the wine is beautifully textured; the tannins are very fine, silky even, quite different from the tannins from the other 2019s from the group that I tasted next to this, Macán and Pintia. A triumph over the conditions of the year, it's a more elegant Valbuena than I anticipated. 190,490 bottles, 5,581 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2022.
