2014 Psi Ribera del Duero

JamesSuckling.com

• By James Suckling
  12/1/2016, (See more on JamesSuckling.com...)

  (Dominio de Pingus Ribera del Duero PSI, Spain) Login and sign up and see review text.

• By Josh Raynolds
  Central Spain: Tempranillo and Beyond (Dec 2015), 12/1/2015, (See more on Vinous...)

  (Dominio De Pingus Psi) Login and sign up and see review text.

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Utopia, 4/12/2017

  (Pingus Psi) Hello friends. Utopia seems like an impossible ideal. A perfect place with perpetually chipper citizens who work together to create a better and brighter future—how can that be real? In today’s world the idea of a cooperative, fully-formed union sure seems a lot more like a fantasy than a reality. However, we keep finding little pockets of hope that such a place can exist—especially when it comes to wine. Today’s offering gives you a chance to support one such community and take home a pretty killer example of Ribera del Duero tempranillo while you’re at it. A win-win, you might say. *The first thing you should know about this wine is that our list members are getting a price that is lower than the lowest price we can find nationally. We are able to offer this wine at more than $10 dollars less than its release price—which is already a steal for this particular Spanish specimen.* Now, on to the good stuff. One of the gems of Ribera Del Duero is Peter Sisseck’s cult-status winery Dominio de Pingus, which produces high scoring wines that have been delivering vintage after vintage (ever since 1996 when Robert Parker dubbed the first Pingus vintage, “one of the greatest and most exciting young red wines I have ever tasted.”) The creation of Pingus revolved around beautiful old vines—some 65-70 years old—that had never been touched by pesticides. Through Pingus, Sisseck created the new benchmark for which Ribera wines would be judged. Two decades of 95+ point scores, including more than one 100 point review, don’t lie, and neither does the average price point for a Pingus wine, roughly $800. These are wines to be respected. In 2006, Sisseck launched Psi as a way to give back to region and the growers who live there. While the vines of this region have always had unbelievable potential, the financing and farming have not—and over the years a focus on quantity over quality led to poor standards across many vineyards. Since the minute he arrived in Ribera, Sisseck dreamed of this Utopian idea where growers and winemakers would work together to create a better region. Psi is the realization of this dream. This project makes price-point driven wines in cooperation with local growers and teaches organic and biodynamic winemaking across the entire region. Working directly with farmers, Peter and his team pay increasingly higher prices for the grapes as they become better, focusing on the health and quality of the grapes overall and incentivizing growers to use better practices. Psi captures the soul of Ribera del Duero through including the families that grow and live in the area. While Pingus was made to show off Ribera, Psi was created to give back to the region that has given Peter—and the world—so much. And oh boy, does this wine give back. It’s classic Ribera de Duero, showing off the savory side of Tempranillo through notes of beef broth, poblano pepper, and caramelization along with dark fruit. Punchy and energetic with extraordinary freshness from the Grenache, Psi is a hearty wine that’s chock full of character and toothsome, solid tannins. Wine Advocate (Luis Gutiérrez): "The 2014 PSI is a blend of Tempranillo with 10% Garnacha and perhaps 1% of other grapes found interplanted with the other varieties in the old vineyards, mostly white Albillo. The idea here is to protect the old vineyards that are disappearing from Ribera del Duero and provide some added value to the grapes coming from them. They have identified a grand total of only 56 hectares of Garnacha in Ribera del Duero, and they have rented 20 of those to save them, because they were set to be uprooted. It has great freshness and energy, with an herbal/leafy touch in the nose that also adds complexity. It's a wine that seems to improve from vintage to vintage, and I believe the jump will be noticeable when they produce it in their own winery from the 2015 vintage onward. The Garnacha always has a lower pH than the Tempranillo, and helps to provide an extra spark of freshness. This is an approachable Ribera, but keeping the character of yesteryear. This is really what Ribera del Duero used to be: all old vineyards and no new oak whatsoever. Kudos to that! 92 pts"