Pingus 2019

Tasting a new vintage of Pingus is always a special moment, and there had been some excitement in Spain about the forthcoming 2019 Pingus. In Ribera del Duero, 2019 was a little warmer and lower yielding than 2018, and the wines show it (as they should), but Sisseck remarked how elegant the wines are showing. This ages in used oak, so the wines are a lot less oaky than the initial vintages that forged the Pingus legend—those initial vintages matured in 100% new barrels, and even part of the wine was racked to another new barrel to complete its élevage. But Pingus has been evolved to more elegance and freshness and nowadays uses zero new oak. In fact, since 2018 they have been using 2,000-liter oak vats, something that will continue in future vintages: the wine ages in oak vats first and then in used barrels. Like the 2019 Flor de Pingus, this is super elegant, balanced and really impressive, with a sensual texture. This was a big surprise, because I expected a riper and more powerful wine and instead found lots of elegance. I have to see how the élevage finishes, but this looks truly promising. It has a rare combination of ripeness and lightness. It reminds me a little of the 2012, while the 2018 is more in line with 2016. I also had the chance to taste the wine from vat and from barrique, and the difference was striking: the part in vat was a lot more relaxed, the barrique wine was more compressed and the quality of tannins was also quite different. It should be put in bottle in August 2021. They expect to produce 7,500 bottles, less than in 2018.

Score: 98 - 100

Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2022-2030 17 September 2020