Fresh and very floral with violets and berries. Blackberries and orange peel, too. Medium-to full-bodied with firm, linear tannins. Excellent length and structure. Seriously structured, Better after 2024, but already beautiful.

Vega Sicilia’s other expression of Ribera del Duero. Originally purchased grapes were used to build a modern style; today the winery owns almost 70% of the vineyard and is aiming for 100%. A focus on precision in winery saw grapes going into 42 separate deposits. Oak has been reined back from 100% new; with just 10% American oak. Very fine floral aromatics and an equally refined palate. Dark fruits lifted by citrus freshness, a vivid style, finishing intense and long with juicy plums. (Drink between 2024-2030)

95+ The 2018 Alión follows the path of the 2016: it is fresh and elegant and from a cooler (more Atlantic) vintage with more rain than the average and a relatively late harvest between September 28th and October 12th. They used 80% new barrels, with up to 10% made of American oak looking to (in their own words) give more sucrosity and sweetness to the wine, as it's a more vertical, tense and elegant expression of Alión. Part of the wine matured in concrete (something they started in 2016), and in 2021 they are experimenting with a 4,000-liter Rousseau foudre, as they want to keep working the texture and freshness. The wine is ripe at 15% alcohol and has a pH of 3.8 and a mellow 4.6 grams of acidity, round and soft. The wine matured until it was bottled in June 2020. The truth is that the wine comes through as subtle, elegant and balanced, with very integrated oak and a nice texture. It's one of the finest vintages for Alión. 257,257 bottles, 7,005 magnums and some larger formats produced. - LG

The more accessible entry from Ribera del Duero icon Vega Sicilia, this wine has aromas of blackberry preserves, Turkish delight and clove. It fills the mouth with flavors of cherry pie, plum pudding, dark chocolate, violet talc and licorice wrapped in opulent tannins that recede into a citrus-zest and floral finish. Mike DeSimone

Alión got its start as the modern sibling of the traditional Vega-Sicilia wines. Half of the fruit for Alión is estate-grown in Vallodolid, on the relatively flat parcels north of the N-122, and from younger vines, as well as from parcels in Padilla and Pesquera de Duero. The Vega-Sicilia team designed a new winery in Padilla de Duero with enough vats to vinify all the plots separately, completed in time for the 2018 harvest and this latest release. This vintage has more of a classic stubborn Spanish personality than the sleek Alións of the past. It’s young and tough, dense with black tannins that last with a peppery drive. Tightly wound and complete, this will reward patient cellaring.

A harmonious red, with a core of ripe black plum and cassis fruit layered with fine, creamy tannins. Medium- to full-bodied and plush on the palate, offering pretty violet, dried thyme and mocha accents and an underpinning of loamy earth, which linger on the sculpted finish. Best from 2023 through 2033. – AN