2019 Bodegas Pintia, Toro, Spain
Critics reviews
The wine released in 2024 is the 2019 Pintia, from a very dry year when they did a softer vinification and used some 15% stainless steel for the élevage to keep the fruit and freshness. It fermented in stainless steel and oak vats with indigenous yeasts. It's a powerful year; the wine has 15% alcohol and is round and full-bodied. It's a heady and ripe Pintia.
They had to be careful with the harvest date, and they harvested early and quite quickly. Even though the wine is ripe and heady, with notes of grenadine and small ripe berries, it's also exotic and spicy, quite showy, lush and full-bodied, with 2019 tannins. It's a more powerful wine that is going to require patience.
They produced 224,724 bottles, 6,587 magnums and some smaller and larger sizes. It was bottled in May 2021.
Drink 2025 - 2031
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (January 2024)
Ripe blackberries, tar, dark cherries and dark spices. Fine cocoa powder, too. Rich and full-bodied on the palate with a saline smack to the middle. Very long and powerful but expressive and refined. A little richer and more powerful than 2018, but elegant and poised at the same time. Vertical, fine-grained tannins.
Drink from 2026
Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor for JamesSuckling.com (November 2023)
The 2019 Pintia originates from Toro, and only 15% was aged in large oak foudres to preserve the fruit, while the remaining portion underwent maturation in both French and American barrels, with 70% being new. Garnet in color. The ripe fruit nose reveals blackberry, dried flowers and minty hints accompanied by an oaky layer. Rich and intense on the palate, the firm Toro tannins from a warm and dry year contribute to the concentrated and flavorful lingering finish.
Drink 2026 - 2036
Joaquín Hidalgo, Vinous.com (September 2023)
About this WINE
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.
Toro
The wine region of Toro is a predominantly red-wine appellation in Castilla y León in north-western Spain. Toro is situated in the province of Zamora, west of the Rueda and Ribera del Duero wine appellations, and in the Spanish Duero river valley near the Portuguese border.
The Toro appellation covers approximately 5,600 hectares of vineyards at an altitude of 600 to 750 metres above sea level. The region produces red wine across the spectrum from Joven to Gran Reserva, but all grades must be made from at least 75 percent Tinta de Toro (the local name for a clone of the Tempranillo red grape). The best reds tend to contain 100 percent Tinta de Toro and are robust, concentrated and well-structured.
Cabernet Sauvignon is also planted in the region, but not permitted for its DO wines. White wines constitute only a small proportion of Toro production and are made from Malvasía and Verdejo.Toro made its breakthrough when some of the greatest names in the Spanish winemaking scene showed their trust in the region's potential, and moved on to establish their own estates there. These included Vega Sicilia's Álvarez family, Rioja's Marqués de Riscal and Mariano García (the former Vega Sicilia winemaker) with its new Toro winery Mauro-dos.
Jacques and François Lurton of Bordeaux also launched a winery (El Albar) in Toro, where they're making wine both alone and in partnership with renowned oenologist Michel Rolland (at his Campo Elíseo). In Valdefinjas, Rioja's Eguren family of Bodegas Sierra Cantabria has Numanthia-Termes, which makes Termanthia and Numanthia, two of the most well-known wines in the region today.
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.
Tempranillo-based wines tend to have a spicy, herbal, tobacco-like character accompanied by ripe strawberry and red cherry fruits. It produces fresh, vibrantly fruit driven "jovenes" meant for drinking young. However Tempranillo really comes into its own when oak aged, as with the top Riojas where its flavours seem to harmonise perfectly with both French and American oak, producing rich, powerful and concentrated wines which can be extraordinarily long-lived.
In Ribera del Duero it generally sees less oak - the exception being Vega Sicilia where it is blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and then aged for an astonishing 7 years in oak and is unquestionably one of the world`s greatest wines.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
In this big warm vintage lots of measures were taken by Gonzalo to retain freshness and he has excelled. The nose is intense and aromatic with a nice array of hedge fruits rising from the glass. On the palate there is a great deal of succulence and freshness behind the ripe fruits and the finish is filled with black pepper and nutmeg with a herbal undertone. A perfect balance between opulence and finesse this wine will age very well but is surprisingly open even now.
Amy Johnson, Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd
A quick harvest was the key to retaining freshness in the 2019 Pintia. The teams were out from the 6th of September, and took the next 10 days to complete picking. This has a big yet fresh nose, with blackberries, wet stones, violets and a hint of cocoa. It’s full-bodied, mineral and broad on the palate with a coated mouthfeel, though it’s not heavy at all. This is a really elegant, nuanced and extremely poised Pintia that you can enjoy now, although I would love to see it evolve. Simply put - this is a gem!
Sigurdur Thor Gunnlaugsson, Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd
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