2012 Dominio de Pingus, Pingus, Ribera del Duero DO 6x75cl

Wine Advocate 100

I finally tasted the 2012 Pingus in bottle, a wine I sampled last year before bottling, and even if it was the final blend, all of a sudden proprietor Peter Sisseck decided to delay the bottling. He cannot really explain the reason why; it was really a hunch, something he felt and he thinks the decision was right. The good news is that the wine delivers all that it promised before bottling. There are plenty of floral notes, violets, even lilies; it’s extremely aromatic, subtle and precise with just some Indian spices in the background to give it an exotic character. With time in the glass, there are some earthy, mineral (even diesel-like?) aromas. It has a rare combination of power and finesse, concentrated but delicate, with buttery, ultra-refined tannins, great balance, acidity, length and a silky texture, not easy to find in Ribera del Duero. This could very well be the best Pingus ever, in the style of 1996, a year of elegance and good acidity, more Burgundian/Atlantic (Peter Sisseck does not agree with the term Burgundian applied to Ribera del Duero) than the average. This wine has the conjunction of their knowledge and the improvements in the vineyards. This is stunning, simply perfect. It has all the components to age for 20+ years. 6,000 bottles were finally filled the first week of September 2014. As I explained last time, 2012 represents a big change in Pingus with 0% new oak used for its upbringing. I visited Pingus (its two main vineyards, Barroso and San Cristobal) and tasted some lots of the extremely promising 2014 form barrel. I want to refrain myself from scoring such young wines as it should have some 16-20 more months in barrel, but it looks like a fantastic vintage that owner and winemaker Peter Sisseck compares to 1995, and thinks needs a long elevage. The key to 2014 was if you could harvest early, because there was rain later on. They had a problem of hail in the vineyards and thought they had lost the harvest, but they were able to recover from it and harvested some 15 barrels, when a normal year sees some 22. Anyway, I tasted 2012 in bottle; 2013 just before bottling (and a few weeks later a bottled sample); and a bottle of the first vintage, 1995, a wine that still feels young and has plenty of power, with developed aromas of tapenade and violets. 2012 represents the best wine Peter Sisseck has ever made (so far). Bravo! [Luis Gutierrez, 28/09/2017]

Anticipated maturity: 2015-2032