Country: Spain Region: Ribera del Duero Varietal: Predominantly Tempranillo with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Carmenere, Albillo. This proportion varies with vintage. Vintage: 2004 Colour: Red Style: Dry Producer: Vega Sicilia Description:There are many, many imitators but only one original.  This is the fourth most highly rated Ribera del Duero wine (based on critic scores): the 2004 vintage was given a score of 97 by The Wine Advocate and the 2002 vintage was given a score of 18/20 by Jancis Robinson. This is Spain's most sought-after wine Ageing Potential: 30 Years Tasting Note:98 points Wine Enthusiast * Editors’ Choice * Lightly baked and hinting at raisin and fine herbs, the bouquet on this benchmark Spanish red enfolds aromas of tobacco, moss and ripe tomato. In the mouth, it’s elegant and silky but also full and expansive. Flavors of baked berry fruits, baking spices, herbs and cocoa finish with a light coating of toast. This is an amazingly complete, exemplary wine that’s just entering its prime. If past vintages of Unico are an indication, it will age well through 2035. (5/2015) 97 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate Pablo Alvarez described 2004 as a textbook vintage with perfect temperatures and rain just when it was needed. The 2004 has a haunting bouquet of dark brambly black fruit, cassis, honey, a tang of marmalade and bacon fat. It already boasts an intense, burly bouquet that will require years to soften. The palate is full-bodied with succulent, ripe, intense black cherries, white pepper, minerals and liquorice and it fans out beautifully towards the finish with tar-tinged black fruit interlaced with black pepper. This is a multi-dimensional Unico, more masculine and grander than the 2005, perhaps the sibling of the 1994? (NM) (8/2012) Jancis Robinson Dark purplish crimson. Actually this smells more obviously ripe and opulent than the 2005, perhaps because of its seductive and already complex undertow. Beautiful completeness. So beautifully balanced that it is already alluring, even if it refines and dries a bit on the finish. Really stunning – explosive! Mineral finish. 19.5/20 points. (6/2012) 2004 is a great RDD vintage, and as such it is a phenomenal Vega Sicilia vintage. Powerful darker cherry fruit combines with fresh acidity, distinguished minerality, underlying savory notes and the tension of a classic vintage. It is young and needs some time in the cellar, but will surely make very old bones. (Joe Manekin, K&L Spanish & Portuguese wine buyer) Food Matches: Duck / Casseroles / Goat Cheese / Venison