From the Duero floodplain to the benchmark of Spanish viticulture
In 1864, Don Eloy Lecanda y Chaves founded the bodega on the banks of the Duero, near Valbuena de Duero in the province of Valladolid. The name has two layers of meaning: Vega stands for the fertile river floodplain, Sicilia for Saint Cecilia, whose chapel once stood on the estate. Lecanda had recently traveled to Bordeaux and brought home around 18,000 vine cuttings — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, and Carménère — which he planted alongside the native Tinto Fino (Tempranillo). This combination of French vine nursery and Castilian origin was to shape the style of the winery for generations.
The estate changed hands several times in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but never lost its character. In 1982, David Álvarez Díez acquired the bodega — the same year that Ribera del Duero received its Denominación de Origen. Since then, the Álvarez family has managed the winery and made it the reference address for Spanish viticulture. The family is a member of the Primum Familiae Vini, the association of the most important family-owned wineries in the world.
Patience as a production principle: wooden vat, barrel, and time
The vineyards of the main estate are located at 700 to 900 meters altitude above the Duero, on soils of limestone, sandy loam, and clay. The continental climate — hot summers, bitterly cold winters, large day-night temperature fluctuations — provides grapes with dense fruit and natural acid structure. Yields are kept low through consistent green harvesting.
In the cellar, Vega Sicilia works according to a principle that has hardly changed since the early 20th century: fermentation in traditional wooden vats, malolactic fermentation also in wood, followed by long aging in a rotation of French and American oak barrels — from small barriques to large containers. The in-house cooperage maintains around 6,000 barriques. What is convincing here from the start: despite this extended maturation time, the wines retain a lively fruit that the wood supports rather than being overlaid by it.
Único, Valbuena, and the TEMPOS network
The heart of the range is three wines from the main estate: the Único, the Único Reserva Especial, and the Valbuena 5°. The Único — a cuvée of Tinto Fino, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec, partly from vines over a hundred years old — spends around ten years in the cellar before it goes on sale: two years in French barriques, at least five in American oak, then further years unfiltered in the bottle. The Valbuena 5° bears its name: five years of maturation before you hold the bottle in your hands. Both show dark fruit, earthy depth, a finish that lingers — and a structure that can withstand many years of development.
Under the umbrella of TEMPOS Vega Sicilia, further wines are created in other regions: Alión in Ribera del Duero with a more modern approach, Pintia in Toro, Macán in Rioja — a cooperation with Benjamin de Rothschild — as well as Oremus in Hungarian Tokaj. Each project follows its own signature, all share the same basic conviction: no compromises on the raw material, no shortcuts in the cellar.
