Welcome to Wine Meditations, a space to contemplate, deliberate, and pontificate over asinine wine topics.
Today's Meditation: What is your holy grail wine?
Ribera del Duero is my favorite wine region. Bottlings from here are capable of sheer brilliance – Tinto Finos certainly, but the oft-overlooked Albillo variety is worth searching out. The food around Castilla y Leon and neighboring Madrid is tough to beat (morcilla is a must, as well as torreznos that put the most impressive chicharrones to shame). And coming from Texas, there's a Cormac McCarthy-esque beauty to the desolate mountainous sprawl, interspersed with the occasional sparse expanse of lush vineyard terrain.
I've had the good fortune in my career to spend an inordinate amount of time around Ribera del Duero, and have sampled through many top marques both in-country and back home. In all my years of tasting and travel, however, the iconic Pingus is a wine that has somehow continuously eluded me.
It has become over the years my holy grail, my white whale – the Mew missing from my Pokedex.
Pingus is produced by Peter Sisseck, a Dane who cut his winemaking teeth in the region at Hacienda Monasterio during the early '90s, before purchasing the plot that would become Pingus. Sisseck approached his new venture as an idealist, utilizing techniques such as berry selection, open-top fermentation, and ageing in neutral oak instead of new, to prioritize quality in his wines over profit. Debuting with the 1995 vintage, Pingus came to the attention of Robert Parker, who scored the effort 96-100 points and declared it, "One of the greatest young red wines I have tasted". Pingus was an immediate sensation, and today is regarded as one of the finest wines in the world, consistently garnering perfect-or-close-to-it scores from critics too numerous to count.
Dominio de Pingus does produce other wines in its range that I've enjoyed numerous times – PSI ($30-$40 retail) and Flor de Pingus ($120-$150), both exceptional at their respective price points. But I have yet to cross the eponymous Pingus off my bucket list. Our paths have never crossed – not a chance Rare Wine Co. tasting encounter, no well-off friend or customer happening to pull a bottle from the cellar, no stroke of blind luck at some random wine pull, nada. The universe to this point has kept us apart, but I won't stop believin' – I'll hold on to that feelin', until Pingus and I find each other, somewhere in the night.
What wines are y'all on the hunt for?
Cheers!
by ItsWine101
26 Comments
>What wines are y’all on the hunt for?
I have been lucky to have tasted many things. Not everything, not every big name. But enough to – not really care whether the others “happen”. There’s only one I really want to try that has eluded me thus far: Assmannshausen Spätburgunder TBA. Hasn’t been made in many decades (to the best of my knowledge). After that, perhaps a traditional pre-WWII Gumpoldskirchner, but I’m probably too late for that.
I absolutely adore champagne. So mine would be a bottle of 1997 Salon.
Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne, 1990 La Mouline, 1998 Jamet Cote-Rotie… There are too many.
I’m grateful to have true Tokaji Eszencia off my list though.
’88 Clos du Mesnil. That and 1811 Comet Year Yquem.
I’ve had Flor de Pingus 2018 in the Canary Islands and it was wonderful. I ordered it as my second choice, because they had Pingus on the list, but no actual bottles in the cellar.
As for my white whale, I’ve tried most of the best Penfold’s wines, but haven’t come across Quantum.
Clos St Hune for sure. Maybe a 1990.
Dönnhoff Riesling. Both dry (GG) as well as residually sweet Spätlese.
Ideally from Hermannshöhle
Chateau Rayas! Would love to try. Unfortunately it’s just about impossible to get around here so will probably be a “if I happen to travel to London and Noble Rot has it by the glass” type of grail.
Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche 2005
My family and I visited France one year when I was still in High School and were fortunate enough to have Michel himself tour us through the winery with no one else. Saw the rock wall with the roots sticking through, the barrel room, fermentation tanks, everything. Then tasted several different wines including this one above, and couldn’t tell you the first thing about what it tasted like. I was just a dumb teenager tasting wine for one of the first times ever.
So my goal one day is to get the exact bottle I tasted as a dumb teenager and give it some better love (or properly shit on it for being a $1,000 dud!)
1989 Yquem. I’m a sucker for old stickies, and I was born in 89. I’ve had a couple other 89 sauternes, and I had one of them tattooed on my arm, so it only makes sense that that would be my grail
Having tried Flor de Pingus, I’m a bit skeptical of Pingus. Would still be interesting to try though.
For me, I’d be more after the LaLa Cote Roties. Or Chateau Grillet for something completely different… but right next door.
Nothing in particular, but I swear I feel a sense of enlightenment every time I try aged Bordeaux, preferably cab heavy. Though my chase bottle is probably an aged Petrus.
Yeah it’s boring but the palette craves what it craves.
Would love to know what other regions produce something similar to aged BDX.
I think it probably has to be Pingus for me too. I picked up a case of PSI to scratch the itch temporarily but i know this is coming for me when i stumble into just a bit too much cash in one go for my own good.
After that it’s between Unico, Masseto and the remaining first growths having tried Haut Brion (though arguably way over its hill)
Dominus 2011 & for personal reasons Bouchard Chevalier Montrachet 2018, which they wont make anymore I think?
For me a pre 1880 vin de constance please!
2009 la mission haut-brion
I recently enjoyed an ’82 mouton which will be hard for me to beat
96 Clos du Mesnil
1947 Pétrus, 2005 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti, 1985 Sassicaia
Grange
Cloche-dury Corton-Charlemagne. And PYCM Batard-Montrachet.
To those that have had Pingus, is it really THAT good?
2016 Josh special reserve. I’m a simple guy.
Ridge Evangelo Mataro from the early ‘90s. I’m a Mourvèdre maniac, and it’s an early vineyard designate expression of one of my favorite vineyards in California from one of my favorite producers.
Diamond Creek Lake, really any year would do.
Haut Brion.