A UNIQUE,
NEARLY MAGICAL ESTATE

The vine is the cornerstone for Vega Sicilia of its winemaking. Everything begins with the vine and that is what establishes the qualities and specific features of the wines that will be, subsequently, ratified here in the winery.  

The 210 hectares used for the vines are divided into three varieties: Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvigon and Merlot. Out of these 210 hectares, 140 are used to prepare Valbuena and Único, and the rest for Alión.

The whole vineyard is structured into 52 different winemaking plots depending on the grape variety, on the age of the plant and of the 19 soil taxonomic classifications to be found on the estate.

The minimum age of the plants whose grapes are used for winemaking is 10 years old and the average age in production is 35. In the case of the old vineyards such as Ontañón, planted in 1910 after the phylloxera outbreak, the plots have been studied and analysed to select the clones that will be used for the parent plants, the plant heritage of the winery.

The vineyard in Vega Sicilia has a 3 x 1.5 m planting pattern, which means a total of 2,222 plants per hectares with an average yield of 1 to 1.5 kg of grapes per plant.

The preparation of the land is another of the factors that is specific to Vega Sicilia. Replanting in the estate is a longer process than normal, as the soil is disinfected naturally. A selective and biological method is used in our winery and it dries the artificial products in order to eliminate the nematodes in the soil that may damage the stocks. Nematicide plants that take five years to clear the land are therefore used . It should be noted that soil planted with old vines have high nematode populations and that means that after the old plants have been removed, a deep cleaning process has to be applied prior to planting the new ones.