Vega Sicilia

Vega Sicilia is an institution in Spain and the authoritative winery of the DO Toro. Most of Vega Sicilia's vineyards are located in the Denominacion de Origen Ribera del Duero, but the bodegas also has vines in the Toro DO.

Vega Sicilia - how it all began

In the mid-19th century, the 2000-hectare Pago de la Vega Santa Cecilia y Carrascal estate was acquired by the Basque landowner Don Toribio Lecanda. He bought the land from the insolvent Marqués de Valbuena de Duero and used Vega Sicilia, as it was later to be called, primarily for agricultural purposes. It was not until his son, Don Eloy Lecanda y Chaves, who took over the property in 1859, that the winery was founded five years later.

Don Eloy obtained a total of 18,000 young seedlings of the grape varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec, Merlot and Pinot Noir from the renowned Beguerie wine school in Bordeaux. At that time, however, Vega Sicilia's production was still in base wines for the production of brandy and ratafia.

Although Vega Sicilia's products had a good reputation at the time, the winery and owner ran into financial difficulties in 1888, so he took both Pascual Herrero Bux and his wife Emilia Coca Aguirre into management. Herrero already held over 80% of Vega Sicilia's property at that time, and his son Antonio Herrero Velázquez bought the remaining shares in 1903.

Herrero leased the winery to Cosme Palacio, a Rioja winemaker who was looking for alternatives to maintain his wine business after phylloxera ravaged Rioja. He left the day-to-day business at Bodegas Vega Sicilia to Domingo Garramiola , a trained oenologist who was to fundamentally change Vega Sicilia with his ideas of modern vinification, new barrels and meticulous cellar hygiene.

Garramiola - the creator of Vega Sicilia

For Garramiola, the vintages of 1915 and 1917 were ultimately the first that would establish the winery's worldwide reputation, partly because in the early days the Herrero brothers gave away Vega Sicilia bottles to friendly aristocrats and members of the royal court. Thus, they ensured, certainly not entirely intentionally, that word of the excellent Vega Sicilia wines spread quickly.

Nevertheless, even at that time, most of the Vega Sicilia wines were still shipped in barrels to Rioja to be sold there under the prestigious name. After the end of the phylloxera crisis in Rioja, Garramiola stayed with Vega Sicilia in the Ribera del Duero and now started bottling nationwide. His breakthrough on the mass market finally came with the 1917 and 1918 vintages, which won important awards at exhibitions. Another milestone were the awards at the Exposició Internacional de Barcelona in 1929.

In the following decades, beginning with Garramiola's death in 1933, the Vega Sicilia winery went through all kinds of stages. Change was the motto, in the cellar, around land register, everywhere. finally, in 1982, Vega Sicilia came under the ownership of the Alvarez family, who invested heavily in modernizing the cellar and upgrading and increasing the vineyard area.

Vega Sicilia offshoot - Alion & Pintia

Since 1992, the Alvarez family has not only expanded internationally with Oremus in Hungary, but has also created two sister wineries to Vega Sicilia, Alion in the Ribera del Duero and Pintia in the Toro DO, which are in no way inferior to the big name in terms of quality and ambition.

The wines of Vega Sicilia

The focus is clearly on Tempranillo, which is perfected by blending with small quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot and Carmenère.

3 wines are created

• Unico Reserva Especial - very exclusive and a cuvée blend of several vintages
• Unico (Gran Reserva) - vintage wine, on the market after 10 years at the earliest
• Valbuena 5° - the second wine Vega Sicilias