Pingus - Sissec, P., Flor De Pingus 2016 magnum

93-95 / 100 Robert Parker
I caught the 2016 Flor de Pingus days before it was due for bottling, so what I tasted was the final blend (done after the time in barrel was over) that was just settling in tank before being bottled. The paradox of 2016 is that it was a warm year, but the resulting wines have great freshness, which also happened in 1996 (one of my favorite old vintages of Pingus). The yields were higher, which brought more freshness to the wines; and the wines are airier and not as compact as, for example, 2015. In fact, what they have been doing for some time now is to work in viticulture—the pruning and what you do with the canopy—to achieve slightly higher yields and get the plants to balance, because as you increase the yields, the ripening takes longer. Even though it's young, this shows amazing perfume that should bloom with a year in bottle. This has all the signals to become one of the greatest vintages of Flor de Pingus. They expect to fill some 105,000 bottles in June 2018. I already look forward to tasting this in my next round, after it has spent a year or more in bottle. I tasted the bottled 2015s, the about-to-be-bottled 2016s and some barrel samples of the 2017s with Peter Sisseck. 2016 could be the modern version of 1996, and in 2015, a warmer vintage that could have turned into something similar to 2011, the wines have great freshness and are closer to 2010 than 2011, even if the years are completely different. 2015 Pingus is terrific and 2016 Pingus can be another legend in the making... I also had the chance to preview the 2017s in barrel, and I felt the wines were very young and resisted writing them up. Sisseck considers it one of the most challenging vintages he has seen in Ribera del Duero, and he plans on having shorter élevage. But the 2017 Pingus was very precise and harmonious, even at such young age. Something to look forward to in the future.
238, The Wine Advocate