Unico Serial Number

[Derrik Navarro]

UNIQUEby Name, UNIQUE by DNA! The Darkmoon UNICO watch in a numbered edition skillfully blends modernity with the stylistic elements of the past. This highly individual creation is a testament to craftsmanship and handmade artistry. Each UNICO has its own identity, thanks to a carefully selected treatment with oxidizing acids that make each piece distinct from the others.

made of AISI 316L steel with aged bronze PVD treatment, with a special manual treatment using various overlapping acids to create an oxidized and antiqued effect. The case is filled with a special oil that highlights the dial, creating the illusion of the absence of glass, with a more intense color effect and enhanced readability. Visible air bubble on the dial to compensate for temperature variations. Distinctive crown protector on the left. 44.8 mm diameter.

laser-cut aged leather with natural process, cognac color. Handmade in Tuscany by expert craftsmen, with careful selection of leathers and materials and entirely Italian processing. Waxed cotton stitching.Width: 22/20 mm.Strap: ref. 9384/Z.AISI 316L steel buckle with aged bronze PVD treatment.Buckle: ref. 9598.

While today Vega Sicilia enjoys a unique status in the realm of Spanish wine, it was not always so. Founded in the 1860s, most of the early wines were sold in barrel. It was not until World War I, when estate-bottling began, that Vega Sicilia began to gain the reputation it has today.

Initially, its legend grew not just because of the wine's quality, but because one had to have the right connections to acquire it. As recently as fifty years ago, the name "Vega Sicilia" was little-known outside a relatively small circle of wealthy Spaniards and Spanish ex-patriates.

Finally, once British merchants and journalists began to celebrate it in the 1970s, Vega Sicilia began to slowly evolve into an international icon. Incredibly, as recently as 1982, when the Alvarez family bought the estate and all its wines, they paid what's reported to have been a mere 3.5 million euros!

Today, when we think of Vega Sicilia, we think of one wine: the vintage-dated nico. But for the better part of a century, another Vega Sicilia wine was held in even higher regard: the mythic and historically more expensive nico Reserva Especial, a multi-vintage blend of the winery's best lots.

nico Reserva Especial was (and continues to be) a blend of vintages, with each new release created from a different assemblage of wines. In a sense, it is much more "classic" than the vintage nico, mirroring how things were done throughout Spain before French winemaking consultants introduced the idea of single vintage wines in the mid- to late-1800s.

Like other great multi-vintage wines, nico Reserva Especial has always been challenging to collect, since it hasn't always been clear what's in the bottle. It wasn't until twenty years ago that the estate began to consistently note both the release date and the component vintages on the label.

Between 1981 and 2000, only the year of release, and possibly a lot number, were noted on the label. Only since 2001 have the labels indicated which vintages are in the blend. And there have never been many sources of independent information for fact-checking.

The estate itself rarely informed consumers of what was in the bottle. In September, 1990, Christie's London auctioned a slate of Vega Sicilia wines dating back to 1941, all from the estate's cellar. The 18 bottles of Reserva Especial were described as "the Pinnacle of Vega-Sicilia," but the components of the wine were left a mystery, described simply as "a blend of several vintages, some of considerable age."

Inevitably, incorrect information has circulated over the years, sometimes ending up in articles and reviews. In 1989, Robert Parker relied on the information given to him to describe the current Reserva Especial release as "a blend of the best lots of wine made between 1949 and 1955," when in truth it was made up wine from the 1960s and early 1970s. Five years later, both Parker and Steve Tanzer attended a massive Vega Sicilia tasting in New York, which each reported in their newsletters. The writers were told that the current release of Reserva Especial was a blend of 1959, 1960 and 1961, when it was almost certainly from the 1970s.

Since we began collecting nico Reserva Especial in the early 1990s, we've managed to acquire more than 200 bottles, representing more than 25 different releases. Our earliest acquisitions have the release dates of 1978 and 1979. Starting about a decade ago, we tried to learn what was in each of them. The biggest help was a private 2004 fax from the estate revealing the blend components back to 1990. Several years ago, Vega Sicilia also posted some very helpful information on its website, though much of it seems to have since been taken down.

We've tried to make up for this scarcity of information by assembling all we've learned about the past four decades of nico Reserva Especials. Our two most important sources of information have been the labels themselves and what we've been able to learn directly from the estate. But over the years, we've picked up further details from articles and tasting notes, filtering out information we believe to be incorrect. And we've photographed each release in our library.

nico Reserva Especial's story begins in 1862, the year when Don Eloy Lecanda Chaves brought vine shoots of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Carmenre from Bordeaux to plant alongside the area's indigenous Tinto Fino, the local name for the noble Tempranillo.

This marriage of varieties, once adapted to the limestone soils and fierce continental climate, proved ideal for producing a great red wine. Located high up on the plain of Castile in the Valbuena del Duero, the vines experience cool nights during the growing season. This provides the essential bright acidity to balance the wine's sun-driven power and concentration.

Yet, wine wasn't Lecanda's aim in planting this mix of vines; his original intention was to make brandy and ratafia. It wasn't until the property's acquisition by the Herrero family and arrival of Domingo Garramiola in 1904, the first in the succession of great Vega Sicilia winemakers, that the estate's ultimate grandeur was revealed.

Garramiola adapted Bordeaux winemaking techniques and the lengthy wood aging of Rioja to the estate's fruit, resulting in the birth of Vega Sicilia in 1915. And the greatest wines that went into bottle at this time were, of course, the nico Reserva Especial.

Domingo Garramiola passed away in 1933, but this marked the beginning of an unbroken succession of great Vega Sicilia winemakers. The first was Garramiola's closest associate, Martiniano Renedo, responsible for such legendary wines as the 1942 and 1953 Unicos.

The 1956 vintage marked the arrival of Jess Anadn, who directed Vega Sicilia for the next three decades. His tenure saw some of the greatest vintage nicos, such as the 1962, 1968 and 1970. His successor was the brilliant Mariano Garca, Anadn's assistant since joining the bodega in 1968 while still in his teens. Among Garca's greatest vintages were the 1987 and the 1994.

In 1998, Garcia was replaced by Xavier Auss, who remained until 2015, when the current winemaker, Gonzalo Iturriaga, arrived. Like Auss, Iturriage is responsible not only for making the great great vintage-dated nico when the year demands. He also has to have the blending skill to create the extraordinary balance of power, complexity and elegance found in the Reserva Especial.

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23% have private medical-hospital plans, with services provided at plans' own facilities or accredited health care organizations, or insurance that reimburses enrollees for purchased care. Most beneficiaries receive private insurance as job benefit.

Mostly Family Health Teams, which are publicly owned and salaried, with some P4P. Gatekeeping role. Patients do not need to register but Family Health Teams are assigned a list of families in their region. Some private facilities run by health plans.

Majority of capacity is public (71%); rest is private, mostly for-profit. Federal government pays municipalities/states prospective risk-adjusted diagnosis-based payments; municipalities/states then pay hospitals FFS. Separate volume-based payments for complex procedures and high-cost drugs.

By Adriano Massuda, Fundao Getulio Vargas (FGV-EAESP) Business Administration School of So Paulo, Mnica Viegas Andrade, Center for Regional Development and Planning CEDEPLAR, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Rifat Atun, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Marcia C. Castro, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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