A superb wine with blueberry, blackberry and violet aromas with hints of minerals. Full-bodied, powerful and structured. Extreme length that lasts for minutes on the palate. Incredible texture and brilliance. Perfect structure.
Inky black. Very dry, dark and finely structured. Has some ripe fruit underneath but just now it is all framework, with the heart waiting to flower. Intense, firm, dry but so refined and so long.
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.
(…) Il y a beaucoup de notes florales, de violettes, de lys dans ce Pingus ; c'est extrêmement aromatique, subtil et précis avec quelques épices indiennes en fin de bouche pour donner un caractère exotique. Avec un peu d'aération dans le verre, on retrouve des notes de sous-bois, plutôt minérales (presque pierre à fusil). Il a une rare combinaison entre puissance et finesse, concentration et délicatesse, avec des tanins beurrés et ultra raffinés, un grand équilibre entre l'acidité, la longueur et la texture soyeuse, pas facile à trouver dans le Ribera del Duero. Ce pourrait bien être le meilleur Pingus de tous les temps, dans le style de 1996, une année d'élégance et de bonne fraîcheur (…). C'est époustouflant, tout simplement parfait. Il a tous les composants pour vieillir pendant plus de 20 ans…