2019 Bodega Alion Ribera del Duero, Castilla y Leon

Ripe, tarry plums and black cherries with violets, rocks, coffee and graphite. Refined notes of balsamic fruit and cocoa powder, too. Full-bodied and juicy with an iron fist of tannins, yet at the same time so velvety and polished. Very long, focused finish, showing lots of finesse and layers. Drinkable now, but better after 2025.

95 points jamessuckling Nov 2022

The 2019 Alión was cropped from a drier vintage compared with the average, and the wines from that year tend to be powerful, concentrated and with structure. They shortened the maceration by 11 days and used concrete for part of the élevage, trying to reduce the impact from the oak in the wine. They define 2019 as a powerful, concentrated and juicy vintage, sensual and unctuous. The wine is ripe at 15% alcohol and has mellow acidity (4.4 grams) and a pH of 3.88, reflecting the warm and dry year that delivered powerful and concentrated wines, similar to the wines from 2015. It's quite fruit-driven, ripe and juicy, with abundant, slightly dusty tannins despite the limited pumping over they did to avoid extracting too much, and the maceration was also shortened. 256,526 bottles, 7,005 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2021.

The Vega Sicilia group wineries are in constant transformation. At Alión, they updated the grape reception and fermentation chamber in 2018 where they introduced smaller tanks and concrete for part of the élevage. In 2019, they bought separate tanks for the press wine, and in 2020 they started using oak foudres for the élevage of the wine. They produce between 250,000 and 300,000 bottles from their 130 hectares of vineyards.

94 points Luis Gutierrez robertparker.com

100% Tinto Fino. 130 hectares of land, unbeatably located on the banks of the Duero River, produce a modern, independent 100% Tinto Fino. These plots, which complement each other, united by the same viticulture as Vega Sicilia, have given rise to firm structured wines.