2018 Pintia----in a box of 6-- Bodegas Pintia - from Vega-Sicilia

Parker - Luis Gutierrez 95+, 2023 - 2029,

The 2018 Pintia comes from a cooler and wetter vintage when the grapes were picked between September 20th and October 7th, and it fermented in their new fermentation room where they feel they can be more precise. The wine still has 15% alcohol, with a pH of 3.82 and 4.6 grams of acidity. It had a shorter élevage this year and matured for 10 months in French and 18% American oak barrels, 81% of them new. The nose is very expressive, with bright cherry fruit, and the wine is fresher than the norm in the region, with integrated alcohol and oak, reflecting a very cool year, floral and perfumed. The palate is medium-bodied and reveals very fine and elegant tannins. This has to be one of the finest vintages of Pintia. 251,512 bottles, 14,144 half-bottles, 6,543 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in April 2020.

Pintia is the Toro project from Vega Sicilia where they have 98 hectares of vineyards in the villages of San Román de Hornija, Villaester and Toro and produce a single cuvée of 250,000 to 300,000 bottles. They keep buying vineyards here, as it's one of the few places with availability of old vines at a moderate price, and they have the intention to grow a little bit. They changed the winery in 2018, introducing smaller vats and lowering the impact of the oak, introducing even some clay tinajas.

Suckling 96,