Pino 2019

Crítica

2020 > 95 puntos
The single-vineyard red 2020 Pino is intense and pure, with character and balance. It was produced with the Bobal grapes from a plot of one hectare of 40-year-old vines at 800 meters in altitude, fermented with full clusters and indigenous yeasts in oak vas and matured in oval 3,500-liter oak foudre for 10 months. It's ripe at 14% alcohol and has mellow acidity and good freshness. This is very dark and radically different from the one-off 2019 I tasted next to it. This is powerful, intense and tannic, a wine that needs more time to polish the edges. This is more in the style of the 2018. It should make old bones. 4,000 bottles were filled in July 2021.
2019 > 96 puntos
The 2019 Pino is only 12.5% alcohol (the 2020 tasted next to it is 14%!) and has a pH of 3.55, from an atypical vintage when the wine comes through as more elegant, as this is usually one of the most intense wines in the portfolio. It fermented in 4,500-liter oak vats but matured in 600-liter barrels. This is completely unusual, and possibly unique given the conditions of the year, which might never happen again. This is th only vintage of Pino with this profile. 2019 was a very warm year, and they picked the grapes very early—it's picked with Clos Lojen, one of the earliest vineyards. So, they picked the grapes before the rain, and the grapes were pressed quite quickly, produced with very short macerations, resulting in a lighter but very mineral wine. I find it very elegant and delicious, and the soil comes through quite transparently—the chalkiness of the limestone is in the texture. 3,000 bottles were filled unfined and unfiltered in July 2020.
2018 > 95+ puntos
The objective for the single-vineyard 2018 Pino is to show a more serious and precise profile with aging potential. The soil for the one hectare of 40-year-old vines planted at 800 meters in altitude is rich in limestone, which helps to achieve more freshness. It fermented with 100% full clusters in 4,500-liter oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used 600-liter French oak barrels for 11 months. But this is always a more powerful expression of Bobal, with darker color and darker fruit than the more ethereal La Estrecha, with some black olive aromas, more Rhône than Burgundy. There is more concentration too and more tannin. There is more rusticity and more the character people expect from Bobal, because La Estrecha and Ponce are unusually elegant and delicate. This showcases the intensity of Bobal on limestone soils; the word is intense. Surprisingly enough, this is their youngest vineyard and one of the first to be harvested, at around the same time as the grapes for Clos Lojen. 2,000 bottles were filled in August 2019.