See also tasting notes on purple pages. In 1981 I wrote about Vega Sicilia, 'what makes Spain's most sought-after wine so extraordinary is that it is made in such splendid isolation. It is even quite difficult to describe its location, so far is it from any known Spanish wine region'. In those days Vega Sicilia was world-famous but officially classified as a humble vino de mesa or table wine. Ha! I thought, as I drove through the now carefully-delimited Ribera del Duero wine region in north-west Spain on my last visit. Nowadays this rugged terrain, upriver from Portugal's port...