Comparing the 2005 Pintia against the 2004, I prefer the aromatics of the 2005, which are beautiful – pure, lifted red fruit, briar, a touch of smoke and minerals. The palate is very well-balanced with supple ripe tannins and fine acidity. There is plenty of red-berry fruit here lending the 2005 an attractive fleshy texture, although there is something slightly foursquare about the finish, with hints of spice, black tea and cracked black pepper on the aftertaste. Still, this is the best of the mature Pintia wines. I made a brief but profitable visit to Bodegas Pintia with Pablo Alvarez and winemaker Xavier Ausas. He told me that they started to buy vineyards in 1997 without a clear idea of what style of Toro wine they would make. “We heard that Toro was a very good region,” he told me, “a region of perhaps rustic wines. We wanted to produce a different style of Tempranillo. We wanted to make a more elegant wine. In Toro the Tempranillo is wilder and rustic while in Ribera del Duero it is more elegant. The Tempranillo is more like a bull in Toro. If you don’t control it, you make wines that are over-ripe.” They ended up acquiring 100 hectares of vineyard, 50% of purchased vineyard and the remainder subsequently planted over ten years. “We like short names for the wines as they are easier to remember,” Pablo answered when I asked where the name originates. I then inquired about the vinification: “During the entire process, it is necessary to keep the fresh fruit aromas, which is the reason we have cool rooms before fermentation. The maximum degree of temperature during fermentation is 28 degrees to protect the aromas instead of 31-33 degrees in Ribera del Duero. After fermentation, we put the wine immediately in new oak barrel without maceration. We use 70% French and 30% American oak and the new oak protects the fresh fruit aroma. We make the malolactic (fermentation) in barrel and after 12 months we mix the lots, and any that are unsatisfactory are distilled. We don’t mature more than 12 months in barrel since the fresh fruit aromas come down and appear as a liqueur (volatile) aroma.” Importer: Christopher Cannan, Europvin; www.europvin.com

This solid red delivers ripe plum and blackberry fruit, backed by meat and mineral notes over firm tannins. Harmonious, with a bitter chocolate finish. Drink now through 2012. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 13,500 cases made.??–TM??Region: Spain / Toro Select to Add

Very young but exuberant and balanced. Tasted in Spain well after bottling but before its March 2008 release, Pintia, Vega Sicilia’s Toro project, comes across as a bull of a wine with huge levels of color and extraction. Floral, mineral and violet aromas lead off, followed by deep berry fruit flavors and lots of rustic charred beef on the finish. Hold until 2009 and drink through 2014.——M.S.(6/1/2008)—— 91