2016 Bodegas Pintia, Toro, Spain

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Full Bodied
  • Tempranillo
James Suckling
94/100
Luis Gutiérrez
95/100
Gillian Sciaretta
91/100
Josh Raynolds
95/100
Ferran Centelles
17/20
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Product: 20161135479
2016 Bodegas Pintia, Toro, Spain

Description

Pintia is one of those hidden gems in Toro, Spain that excels year in year out and yet many have still not heard or are aware of this excellent wine.? A dry and cool year the wine really stands out for its class, precision and freshness.? It has a lovely aroma of dark fruit on the nose with a hint of garrigue and minerality that makes me think of an Old-world Syrah.? The palate is medium bodied , with fine filagree tannins exhibiting a precision and tension that is sometimes missing in hotter years, whereby the fruit has a little more rusticity.? The whole wine has elevated itself, it’s a more focussed beauty than previous vintages. Recent renovations in the Pintia cellars are hopefully part to blame and lets hope this continues. ?A fantastic showing for this wine or should I say “an awful wine – don’t tell anyone about it!”, whilst treating yourself to a case!

Drink 2025 – 2030+

Stuart Rae, Buying Commercial Manager (Private Accounts), Berry Bros. & Rudd (February 2021)

Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2016
Alcohol % 14.5
Grape List Tempranillo
Body Full Bodied
Property Bodegas Pintia

Critics reviews

James Suckling 94/100
Blueberry, lavender and some vanilla and cedar character. It’s medium-bodied with round tannins and a flavorful finish. Nice, creamy texture. It finishes reserved, polished and complex. So drinkable now, but one of the cellar as well. james_suckling, jamessuckling_com (September 2020)
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (Sep 2020)
Luis Gutiérrez 95/100
The 2016 Pintia comes from a cooler but drier vintage, and the wine has a little less alcohol and more freshness. It fermented in oak vats and matured in mostly new and mostly French oak, but this year they used a little more American oak with the idea to increase density. 2016 was an atypical year in Toro; they had plenty of time to pick the grapes with lower alcohol and wines with more elegance. This is clearly a more elegant vintage than 2015. The wine has some notes that took me to the Northern Rhône, and the oak is neatly integrated—it seems to get better integrated in cooler years. There is a mix of black and red fruit that denotes good freshness. The palate is medium-bodied, with a distinct lack of rusticity and density, and it's more fluid. It has abundant, chalky and fine-grained tannins and a supple, long and dry finish.230,032 bottles, 6,517 magnums and some larger formats were produced. It was bottled in May 2018.Drink 2020 - 2026Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate (June 2021)
Luis Gutiérrez, RobertParker.com (Jun 2021)
Gillian Sciaretta 91/100
This sanguine-driven red has a bold, concentrated expression, with black plum reduction, balsamic, grilled herb and espresso flavors. Oak spice, anise and cocoa details line up along the tannic finish. Drink now to 2029Gillian Sciaretta, Wine Spectator (November 2021)
Gillian Sciaretta, WineSpectator.com (Nov 2021)
Josh Raynolds 95/100
Saturated ruby. Expansive cherry, black raspberry, potpourri and exotic spice aromas are complemented by subtle licorice and woodsmoke flourishes. Vibrant and sharply focused in the mouth, with a spine of juicy acidity adding focus to palate-staining black and blue fruit liqueur, violet pastille, mocha and spicecake flavors. The floral quality resonates emphatically on the clinging finish, which features lingering cherry and smoky mineral notes. There's noteworthy elegance here, a trait that's not exactly common for Toro.Drink 2024-2034josh_raynolds, Vinous.com (June 2021)
Josh Raynolds, Vinous.com (Jun 2021)
Ferran Centelles 17/20
100% Tinta de Toro. 75% of the vineyards are in the surroundings of San Román de Hornija, with its outstanding clay soils and boulders. 25% on sandy soils. The vintage was one of the warmest and driest on record during the beginning of the cycle. However, September was quite cool, so it ended up being a somewhat unusual vintage, with less alcohol than normal. Manual harvest, cold-soaking and 25% American oak.Although it is a vintage that finished more leisurely and fresh, this Pintia does not lose its forcefulness. Black nose showing cocoa, plum, coffee, charcoal, roasted notes. On the palate, it is a dense, concentrated black-fruit bomb with a touch of tar. So extraordinary with this level of concentration. It is the most forceful face of the Tempos Vega Sicilia group.Drink 2020 - 2030Ferran Centelles, JancisRobinson.com (July 2020)
Ferran Centelles, JancisRobinson.com (Jul 2020)

About this wine

Tempranillo/Tinto Fino

A high quality red wine grape that is grown all over Spain except in the hot South - it is known as Tinto Fino in Ribera del Duero, Cencibel in La Mancha and Valdepenas and Ull de Llebre in Catalonia. Its spiritual home is in Rioja and Navarra where it constitutes around 70% of most red blends.

Bodegas Pintia

Vega Sicilia’s owners, the Álvarez family, bought Bodegas Pintia in 1996, attracted to the galet-strewn terroir in the northern Spanish region of Toro, the rich clay subsoils and the familiar altitude. They decided to produce an alternative expression of Vega Sicilia’s style of Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) from this site. Toro’s main point of difference to Ribera del Duero is the ambient temperature, which can blaze in the height of summer. The challenge here is to match concentration with elegance, a challenge met by Bodegas Pintia with no shortage of aplomb.

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