2018 Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia Macan
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Tasting notes
100% Tempranillo. Winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga: ‘2018 had lots of ripe tannin and there was freshness too.’ It was aged in a combination of foudres and barrels. Only a small portion of malo took place in tank! (And none in tank in 2019!) but the malo is always completed eventually, in wood. They are developing their own yeast. pH is usually 3.65–3.7 (Ribera pH is generally higher, 3.85 or so). No Reserva on the label (if you label it Reserva, you can’t use foudre, apparently). Iturriaga claims 2021 is going to be great! He’s not such a fan of 2019. ‘Forget 2022 – it was very complicated and challenging. For example our Toro is <13.8%. Other locals kept the grapes on the vine to go for alcohol but we picked while the grapes were fresh.’ Sweet oak on the nose – less immediately appealing to me than the Macán Classico 2019. Though the palate is beautifully soft despite the tannins which insist only at the very end. (JR)
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Macán has moderate alcohol (14%) and more freshness (pH 3.69), reflecting a cooler and rainier year that forced them to fine-tune the sorting and selection of the grapes, which fermented with selected yeasts. The élevage was in barrel (55%) and larger foudres for 16 months. 2018 was quite different from 2019, as it was cooler and rainier. The wine is serious and harmonious, which was a challenge, and winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga told me that they had to be very careful and sort and select the grapes. It's textured and elegant, a style that follows the path of the 2016; it's elegant but with depth, managing the élevage in foudre better, which was a learning process they started in 2016. 74,570 bottles, 2557 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in September 2020.
A beautiful, complex nose with creamy spices, cedar, fresh blackberries, red plums, truffles and hints of walnuts and mocha. Medium to full body with multidimensional tannins that are tight as a rock, coating the palate in a linear way, penetrating from the entry to the end with a final thud. Give it three or years to come around. Drink from 2025.