Dominio de Pingus - Ribera del Duero 'Flor de Pingus' 2023

Pingus is produced by the visionary Danish winemaker Peter Sisseck. Peter arrived in Spain in 1993 to manage a new project, Hacienda Monasterio. While planting and developing Monasterio, he began to dream about the old vines he saw dotted around the Ribera del Duero landscape. By the 1995 vintage, Peter had found a group of old vines that spurred him to embark on his own project. He called it “Pingus,” after his childhood nickname.

With Pingus, Peter’s vision was to push Tempranillo to its upper limits. He spent the first few years pruning his vines back to a healthy balance—the trunks were straightened, lowered, and canes were pruned back to 1-2 buds per cane. Yields have typically been under one ton per acre.

Over the past decades, Peter has continually refined his original vision. Since 2001, he has employed biodynamic viticulture to capture a healthier balance in his vineyards. In the winery, he has made subtle changes aimed at taming the region’s natural power and giving more delineation and depth to the Pingus voice.

Pingus is fermented in large wooden vats and, once in cask, is mostly left alone. While early vintages employed a high proportion of new barrique for aging, Peter has decreased that amount over time to the point where top vintages see no new wood whatsoever.

“Peter Sisseck admits that he was worried about the 2023 vintage in La Horra, but is very happy with the finished wine. Combining grapes from five parcels - Barroso, El Castillo, El Pino, Fuentenarro and Fuentes - totalling 49 hectares, Flor is what he calls "our village wine", showing impressive finesse in a hot growing season, succulent tannins, flavours of blackberry, red cherry and ginger spice and a violet top note.” - 95 Points, Tim Atkin

“The 2023 Flor de Pingus is made from over 20 hectares of old Tinta del País vines and 15 hectares of Garnacha in Ribera del Duero. It was aged in 10–15% new oak. Violets, fresh plum and a delicate touch of oak open on the nose. Fine-grained reactive tannins define the texture. A red with charming nuances and evolving character.” - 95 Points, Vinous

“The 2023 Flor de Pingus is pretty, juicy, ripe and approachable, less serious than the 2022. It's all really balanced and integrated and has good purity. The wine spent eight months in oak barrels, and in 2023, they introduced six 2,000-liter oak vats for the élevage of part of the wine, which represents around 15% of the volume, where it matured for 12 months. It's an approachable vintage of Flor.” - 94 Points, Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate

Producer: Dominio de Pingus

Country: Spain

Region: Castilla y León

Varietal: Tempranillo

Appellation: Ribera del Duero

Vintage: 2023

Size: 750ml