Bodegas Benjamin Rothschild and Vega Sicilia Macan 2012
- Decanter
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
After the 2010, this is the finest release yet from this no-expense-spared operation. Super-aromatic and dense, it’s a very ambitious wine aimed at the top end of the market. Made for the long haul, with a core of black fruits, bright acidity, stylish oak and ripe, integrated tannins.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This young, massive Rioja smells of raspberry, plum, char and tar. The mouthfeel is chunky, rich and deep, with manageable tannins. Blackberry, mocha, char, clove and chocolate flavors announce generous oak, while the finish is spicy, peppery, toasty and ripe. Drink 2018–2034.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012s had somehow escaped me in my previous visit to Rioja, so I took the opportunity to taste them now so there is a reference about them in the database. I also had the chance to taste the 2012 Macán in the context of the 2013 and 2014 vintages, so it's good to provide context. 2012 was a dry and healthy vintage that produced ripe grapes. I'm glad I tasted it, and I think I saw it in a very good moment of its evolution, where the oak seems better integrated, still keeping its primary flavors, with very good balance and polished tannins but already developing some complexity and nuances. 54,889 bottles, 1,689 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2014.
93+ points -
Wine Spectator
Licorice and graphite notes frame black cherry and dried herb flavors in this polished red. Not exuberant, but balanced, with harmony and depth. Drink now through 2024.
Other Vintages
2018-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
Spirits
Wine &
-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Spectator
Wine
-
Parker
Robert -
Spirits
Wine & -
Spectator
Wine
MACAN is the name chosen for the wines, derived from a traditional name for the people of this sub-region of Rioja. Each year, they aim to produce two wines, MACAN and MACAN CLASICO, "a first and a second wine following the Bordeaux tradition of classification by tasting the different lots and bottling a first wine with more potential and a second wine more expressive and easy to drink when young." This is perhaps the most notable influence of the Rothschild family on the project, because otherwise all viticulture and winemaking is in the hands of the Vega Sicilia team.
The style of the wines is certainly not ‘traditional’ Rioja – after trials, they decided against American oak – but the style is not modern “alto espreccion” either. Perhaps the term Neo-Classical is most apt, with complex mineral-infused fruit and discreet oak influences, underpinned by a fine but firm structure. These are definitely “fine wines” in the grand European tradition, and sure to generate serious media, trade and consumer interest.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.