Vega Sicilia, Pintia, Toro DO 2011

Vintages are therefore selling a little faster now and I tasted the 2011 Pintia, which is produced with the local strain of Tempranillo called Tinta de Toro from, head-pruned, mostly ungrafted, old vineyards (40 to 60 years of age) that were harvested quite early and quickly (50 tons of grapes per day!), September 13-18, to preserve the freshness in a very warm, ripe vintage. The wine matured for one year in mostly French oak barrels and is dark and ripe, but surprisingly fresh for a very warm vintage. The early harvesting has paid back and has provided for a wine that shows the character of the place, with that slight rusticity – especially if compared with Alion – true to its birthplace and the vintage, with notes of tree bark and damsons, spicy oak and a faint reductive character when uncorked. It would benefit from decanting in advance, and notes of beef blood emerge with time in the glass. The palate is medium to full-bodied with juicy tannins and a supple texture that fills your mouth, ending with a pleasant bitter note. This is a generous, big, ripe wine getting civilized and more elegant by the year, still a little marked by toasted oak, but developing different notes with time, becoming very meaty and showy. The 2011 will be released in 2015. 190,000 bottles produced. Drink 2015-2019. As the 2009 vintage of Pintia was bottled roughly at the same time as the 2010 Alion, it also suffered from the cloudy sediment that marred the wine and made them stop selling it. They destroyed the remaining bottles and carried on with the superb 2010 that was reviewed by Neal Martin last year. Importer: Christopher Cannan, Europvin; www.europvin.com

• Drinking Window: 2015 - 2019
• Reviewer Name: Luis Gutierrez
• Review Date: August 2014