Vega Sicilia Pintia 2018

This stunning Pintia manages to retain a true sense of harmony, perfectly balancing the ripe strawberry and macerated fruit flavours with the rich tannins. The finish has real depth, with the woody and spicy notes playing delicately with the sumptuous texture.

The Toro region, 60 miles west of Ribera del Duero, is home to some remarkable 19th-century vines, but at the turn of the 21st century still lacked a superstar bodega. This arrived in 2001 in the form of Pintia, where the Vega Sicilia team have succeeded in bringing freshness and ageability to the wine without sacrificing the wild, potent character of the appellation. The sandy soils here are unfavourable to phyllo7era, so two thirds of the vines at Pintia grow on their own roots, allowing the native personality of the local Tinta de Toro, clone of Tempranillo, to shine through all the more.

Vega Sicilia is a legend among Spanish wine producers, established in 1864 at the western end of what is now the Ribera del Duero DO. The flagship, Unico, is Spain’s undisputed equivalent of a first growth, while the more approachable Valbuena 5º is just as sought after. The historic estate went through several changes of ownership before being bought by the Álvarez family in 1982. Meticulously detailed viticulture feeds into a complex, multi-stage ageing process that gives these wines a vibrancy and integration quite unlike any of their Ribera del Duero peers.