Dominio de Pingus, Ribera del Duero, Flor De Pingus 2016

Deep violet. Smoke- and spice-accented dark berries and cherry on the highly perfumed nose. Lively bitter cherry, blueberry and violet pastille flavors stain the palate, showing fine definition and a supporting spine of tangy acidity. Opens up and deepens on the strikingly long, incisive finish, which features gently chewy tannins and lingering florality.

I also tasted the unbottled 2016 Flor de Pingus before, so a revisit now, some 15 months after it was bottled, was due. There is great freshness in these 2016s, with a character that reminded me of orange peel, citrus and floral. There is great balance in the palate, and the tannins are velvety within the faintly rustic character of the zone; keeping the style of the zone, that texture is what Peter Sisseck calls three-dimensional tannins—very clean and focused, long and tasty and ending with great freshness. They were able to harvest early with proper ripeness and tons of freshness; in fact, that year they finished harvesting when some had not even started in the zone... In the future, they will include some Garnacha in the blend of Flor de Pingus (starting with 2018 with a very small percentage), as they have planted some vines selected from old vineyards in the region. They now have 35 hectares from four parajes in the village of La Horra for this wine, and in 2016, they produced 105,000 bottles. It was bottled in June 2018.