2021 Bodegas Alión, Ribera del Duero, Spain
Description
The 2021 Alion is generous, approachable and bursting with red fruit character. You get a sense of a cooler, more restrained vintage here, but one that still possesses the powerful Ribera core. Notes of kirsch, strawberry coulis and sweetly spiced fruit persist throughout. The palate is broad, with a slightly chiselled minerality, some crunch and warm spice. This finishes with a herbal note, and fresh acidity: it’s a bright, lifted vintage for Alion.
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Colour
Red -
Sweetness
Dry -
Vintage
2021 -
Alcohol
14.5% -
Grape
Tempranillo/Tinto Fino/Tinto Roriz -
Body
Full Bodied -
Producer
Bodegas Alion
Critics reviews
100% Tinto Fino. Vineyards averaging around 40 years old spread across different municipalities in the DO. Moradillo provides acidity and tension; Roa, concentration and tannin texture; while Pesquera and Nava complement with concentration and character. Alión is an interpretation from different harvest times. A very good vintage, although this year will be remembered for being the year of Storm Filomena. It reached extreme temperatures of -15 °C in January, but it was fantastic in terms of the wine.
Aged for 12 months using 7% concrete, 3% wooden foudres of 4,000-litres and, for the rest, barrels, 8% of which were American oak, 75% new French oak, and 7% second-year barrels or ‘envinadas’. Subsequently, the wine was aged in bottle for 18 months. Production: 244,244 bottles, 7,075 magnums, 600 double magnums, 80 Imperials and 5 Salmanazars.
Very fine Alión, with less oak than usual and a profile of depth and subtlety. On the palate, sapidity, a touch of salinity, and fully integrated and smooth tannins. I love the way the oak is integrated, with much more subtlety than previous Alións. Fluidity, chalky texture, and lots of finesse on the palate. A touch of violet on the back palate and still very primary. One of the best Alións I can remember.
Drink 2024 - 2040
The vintage released in 2025 is the 2021 Alión, a year to remember, one of the best in recent times; it was relaxed and textbook in all senses, with snow in the beginning of the year, a mild spring disturbed only by frost in Pesquera that didn't affect other villages, a relatively cool summer that slowed things down, and the grapes ripened to perfection without rain after September. They used grapes from 13 different villages throughout the Ribera del Duero, 130 hectares. The grapes are cooled down for 24 hours, and once destemmed, they are put in the oak and stainless steel vats, where they undergo a five-day cold soak and then native fermentation through a "pied de cuve."
It has 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.81 and 4.8 grams of acidity tartaric). It's very fresh and fruit-driven, with the balance and elegance of the cooler years, a little austere, with very elegant and polished tannins and a different quality, when the grapes ripen slowly. They believe 2024 has the potential to be like 2021, after the 2022 and 2023 vintages were a lot more challenging. This is a large production of 244,244 bottles, 7,075 magnums and some larger formats. It was bottled in June 2023.
Drink 2025 - 2040