While most of us are familiar with Vega Sicilia's Unico, I think the majority of collectors and wine enthusiasts haven't explored the wealth of exceptional bottlings that exist outside of that iconic estate. Ribera del Duero's focus on mostly monovarietal Tempranillo from gnarly, goblet-trained vines that are nearly a century in age makes this region worth a deep dive. Additionally, the top producers' seamless marriage of traditional techniques (made famous by producers in Rioja like López de Heredia) and the lessons of 21st century winemaking science make this region a hotbed of world-class wines worthy and capable of decades of aging.
The producer who I feel is the most overlooked PERIOD is Viña Sastre. While their Pésus bottling goes for $500-600 and is one of the most adored in all of Spain for savvy insider collectors, the winery remains mostly overlooked in the United States. The Viña Sastre Pago de Santa Cruz is a bottling that is released only in top years in a volume of less than 500 six-pack cases for the world market. The vineyard was planted in 1946, and its ancient vines remain dry-farmed and bush-trained as is traditional. It's a deeply colored opaque style, matured in a combination of used Amerrican and French Oak barrels for five years, resulting in an exuberant and complex explosion of ripe black fruits, wine-soaked cedar and sandalwood, zesty five-spice powder, mocha, and scorched earth. The Regina Vides is even more special. with a 6,000 or less bottle production produced from goblet trained vines with an average age of over 100 years! This cuvée is sort of like the "baby" Pésus and sees 100% new French oak. It is intense, powerful, but somehow still incredibly elegant, just like its more famous Unico counterpart. - BRANDON KERNE, MASTER SOMMELIER
92 Points from Luis Gutiérez of Wine Advocate: "The style of the 2015s from the Hermanos Sastre is like adding gasoline to the fire, and the 2015 Pago de Santa Cruz shows it—it’s a ripe lush, structured and powerful Tempranillo with generous oak and 15% alcohol. It’s a thick and dense red with plenty of glycerin, moderate acidity and plenty of oak flavors. A more Mediterranean vintage, with some gritty tannins, it matured in new American oak barrels for 18 months. 14,000 bottles were filled in July 2017. "
