Critic: Luis Gutiérrez

Tasted: 28-JUN-13

Drinking Dates: 2015-2035

Score: 97

The 2009 Pingus was released last year, but it should still be pretty available. It was harvested on October 5 and 6 under perfect conditions. It is a powerful and concentrated vintage for Pingus. I’m amazed at how much the wine integrated with one extra year in the bottle – the aromas are more precise, starting to reveal the true personality of the wine. The nose is very perfumed and balsamic, with notes of violets and ripe, juicy fruit, quite high-pitched. The oak is well-integrated into the wine. The palate is very powerful, full-bodied, concentrated but balanced, and wearing its 14.5% alcohol lightly, in a very difficult combination of power and elegance, with abundant but silky tannins. Very long aftertaste. 5,600 bottles were produced. Drink: 2015-2035. I believe it’s important to guide readers to select the wines they are going to like the most, and in the case of multiple vintages of the same wine, getting the information through about the style of the year and what the differences between the wines are seems vital. Generally speaking, both 2009 and 2010 were very good vintages for Ribera del Duero, but they are stylistically different. Sisseck makes the comparison between 2009-2010 and 1995-1996, with 2009 and 1995 producing powerful wines, and 2010 and 1996 a little colder, giving wines with more acidity and finesse. It will be fascinating to follow the evolution of the two vintages. The yields are very low in both years, around 11 hectolitres/hectare, and the vinification and upbringing of the wine pretty similar: the whole grapes are fermented in 2,000 litre oak foudres, malolactic was carried out in French oak barriques where the wine was aged for 22 months.

Critic: Jeff Leve

Tasted: 01-MAY-12

Drinking Dates: -

Score: 97

From 100% Tempranillo planted in 1929, this small 4.2 hectare estate produced an inky colored wine. Mineral, flowers and liqueur of blackberry in the perfume are followed by a wine that fills your mouth and coats your palate with sweet, ripe, dense, pure, licorice and fresh, chocolate, boysenberry and cherry. This is long, lush, rich and intense. Based on a recent vertical tasting, the owner, Peter Sisseck said his favorite vintage of Pingus remains the wine’s debut 1995 release along with the 1999.

Critic: Josh Raynolds

Tasted: 01-NOV-11

Drinking Dates: -

Score: 96+

Dark purple. Drop-dead gorgeous aromas of spicy dark berries complicated by vanilla, mocha, espresso, iron, licorice and sexy oak spices. Sweet and expansive, showing great depth to its ripe blackberry and boysenberry flavors. Notes of candied flowers, cola and mocha gain strength with air and carry through an extremely long, sweet finish. There's plenty of structure here but it's hidden under all the dense fruit right now. That price is correct, sadly. -- Josh Raynolds