2014 Dominio de Pingus Cuvée Amelia

There is an obscure wine produced by Peter Sisseck at Pingus, the 2014 Amelia, from a single vineyard with very old plants from 1895; its age is know with precision because it was planted to celebrate someone's birth. It only has 500 plants, but Peter Sisseck considers that it's the perfect expression of the old Tinta del País clone of Tempranillo. From those 500 plants, they have selected some 300 of them that they use for planting all of their new vineyards, as they have very small bunches that Sisseck compares with what you get with Pinot Noir. This wine used to go into Flor de Pingus, but his American imported convinced him to make a separate cuvée, which fermented in a 500-liter stainless steel vat with 50% whole clusters, and as the volume is very small, the temperature of fermentation stays quite low at some 19 degrees Celsius. They aged it in a T5 Taransaud barrel, a well-seasoned one (they have two that they rotate through consecutive vintages), avoiding the oak aroma in the wine. This is a very elegant and harmonious, nuanced and insinuating Ribera del Duero within the powerful style of the zone and the vintage. It's quite ripe, but does not have very high alcohol (14.5%). However, the difference here is the quality of the tannins; they are as a soft, round and lush as they get. This is sold exclusively in the US. Unfortunately, only some 280 bottles are produced. This was first bottled separately in 2003, but you don't come across it that often, as production figures are tiny.