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  • Country ranking ?

    29
  • Producer ranking ?

    9
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    from 2020

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Peter Sisseck was ecstatic about the quality of the 2015 Pingus. Since he no longer uses any new oak—and hasn't since 2012—the élevage in used wood is extended to 23 or 24 months. This is the first vintage certified as biodynamic from Demeter. We poured the wine and took half an hour to get to it, as the wine was very closed at first and opened up very slowly in the glass. Little by little, the nose started showing a floral character, what I consider the perfume of great Ribera del Duero, the elegant part that compensates the powerful nature of the wines and gives the finesse to the best wines. The wine has been very consistent in the last few vintages, as Sisseck reckons the old but balanced vines (they started working in biodynamics in 2000) cushion the vintage differences more than other younger vineyards. These vines were planted in 1929, and they have always been farmed organically and in a traditional way. This is truly outstanding. In a way, it made me think of 2010, even if they are very different years. It was bottled in August 2017, and there are some 6,500 bottles of this gem. Even if very young, it already drinks well. Great wines tend to be drinkable throughout their life...

 

"Intense, opaque, jet plum in colour, the nose here reveals red and black fruit and saline minerals, violet and rose notes and mocha caramel – deliciously complex. The palate is smooth, luscious and seductive - tannins present but fruit-coated and beautifully integrated. This is a gorgeous wine, no hard edges, simply sumptuous, beautifully balanced, generous and poised through to a protracted finish." Recommended drinking from 2021 – 2030+. Producers notes.

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The Story

Dominio de Pingus was established in 1995 by Danish winemaker Peter Sisseck. It is situated in the La Horra area of the Ribera del Duero region. The wine produced, Pingus, is considered a "cult wine", sold at extremely high prices while remaining very inaccessible.

On the estate's winemaking philosophies, Sisseck has stated, "The vines in my plots are very old. They have never been fertilised nor treated with pesticides and all grow following the traditional en vaso system. They are perfect."
The first vintage of Pingus was 1995. The production of this wine is always very limited, in 1995 it was only 325 cases. Yields as low as half to a quarter of the finest red Grand Cru Burgundies. Of the annual production of Pingus there is typically less than 500 cases, though in poor vintages no Pingus is made.

Pingus is the first wine to transcend traditional Spanish winemaking. In it Peter Sisseck has created a modern archetype of Ribera de Duero. With only a few vintages released, Pingus is already part of an elite club of top Spanish wine producers whose wines combine a true sense of their origins with fiercely singular personalities.

Pingus is undoubtedly world-class and helped to confirm the Ribera del Duero as a match to any of the traditional European appellations. This is nevertheless a distinctly Spanish wine.



Soil: limestone-rich clay and gravel

Production area: 4 ha

Grape varieties: 100% Tempranillo

Average age of vines: 70 years

Harvest method: hand picked

Winemaking: no fining or filtration, minimal rackings. Pingus has been biodynamic since 2000

Ageing: 18-20 months in new oak barrique

 

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Wine Information

100% Tempranillo (Tinta del Pais). Dominio de Pingus comes from two complementary terroirs covering 4.5 hectares. The first, “Barrosso,” lies on gravel and sand over alluvial limestone. The second, “San Cristobal,” is on southwest facing clay slopes. From these squat, gnarled vines of sixty years and more, Mr Sisseck coaxes a ridiculously small production ranging from 20 hectolitres per hectare (hl/ha) at best, to as little as 9 hl/ha. Production in 2015 was 6,600 bottles.


Both Pingus and Flor de Pingus are in great demand. Having set enormously high standards from the outset, Flor de Pingus has become even more focussed as Mr Sisseck, mirroring Pingus, has fully embraced organic and biodynamic principles. Pingus has been fully biodynamic since 2000 and Flor de Pingus from 2005. 

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

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Information

Origin

Castile-León, Ribera del Duero

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Good

Fake factory

None

Inside Information

2015 is a very promising vintage for Ribera de Duero, one in which wine maker Peter Sisseck deliberately allowed a larger vintage yield to avoid over concentration. It was hot and dry, with old vines doing very well. The wine produced by Peter Sisseck in this vintage are both elegant and refined...

“2015 was a great vintage in Ribera del Duero. It was a vintage where many things came together.” Peter Sisseck

 

Winter had, fortunately, allowed for reasonable waterreserves but spring was very dry – until flowering inmid-June. The dry weather in July arrested growth just as the grapes were changing colour (véraison). A normal summer was followed by a dry autumn and uninterrupted growth. An unusual factor was the lack of the usual temperature swing between day and night. The phenological progress of the grapes required close monitoring as it was so far removed from the norm.Since there was no significant rain in the final ripeningphase, harvest was fast, taking place in the last week in September without any breaks. The grapes were sound and healthy.

The weather conditions in 2015 meant that Peter 11elected to increase yields by 10 to 15%, to avoid the
wines becoming too concentrated. Since 2011 the
vintages have made for a singular elegance in the

wines – well-documented (and scored) by third party wine critics. The 2015, potentially disastrous due to
the challenging growing season, is one of the most poised, balanced wines Peter has ever made. Elegance is therefore deemed to be the way ahead – hence the aim to restrain concentration.

For Psi, Peter feels that he is gaining ever deeper knowledge of the vineyards and growers he has selected and, as they have in turn grown in their trust, Peter was able to vinify half of the crop in his cellar in Aranda, allowing him better control in pursuit of ever increasing quality.

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