Flor de Pingus 2013 75cl

A linear and refined red with dense fruit, yet bright and racy. Full-bodied, tannic and firm. Shows wonderful length and complexity. 100% tempranillo and aged in 40% new French barrels. Needs about four to five years to soften but already beautiful.

The 2013 Flor de Pingus is a mosaic of different vineyards in the village of La Horra in Burgos, totaling some 35 hectares. As all these are estate vineyards, they were much better controlled than those used for PSI, and the wine shows it in a challenging vintage like this one. It has a slightly different profile from your average Ribera, with better freshness. The wine had only been in bottle for around one month, and the wine is open and expressive. There are some roasted aromas, black cherries, blackberries and plenty of spices with hints of smoke. It's also a lighter version of Flor, and whether this will be as long-lived as other vintages, it's still a question mark, as the extra acidity might give it a longer life than expected. In any case, give it some time in bottle to finish integrating the oak and drink over the next four-five years. 70,000 bottles produced. 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 élevage. 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!

Firm tannins corset a plush texture in this generous red. Black cherry, plum, cedar, spice and mineral flavors mingle, kept lively by fresh acidity. Plenty of stuffing here, but not aggressive. Drink now through 2023. 2,500 cases made. –TM