Bodegas Rothschild and Vega Sicilia Macan Clasico 2018

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.

I have the second wine in their collaboration with the Rothschild family as both wanted to expand into Rioja and combined their knowledge and resources to attempt to make the best Rioja on the planet. This 2018 ‘Macan Classico’ was particularly successful, garnering 97 points from Wine Enthusiast, who called it a: “dark garnet-colored wine has a nose of black currant, raspberry and milk chocolate. Deep fruit flavors of cassis and dark plums fill the mouth, joined by notes of cocoa powder, tobacco leaf and espresso bean.” Parker’s Wine Advocate echoed the sentiment chiming in with their own 94-point review in which they called it, “one of the finest vintages for this wine; it is round and nicely textured.”