2003 Dominio de Pingus Pingus

Saturated purple-ruby. Superripe aromas of black raspberry, gunflint, chocolate, minerals, flowers and sexy nutty oak. Wonderfully lush, creamy and sweet, with extraordinary concentration of dark fruit, mineral and floral flavors. A wine with no corners, and hard to scrape off your palate. Broad on entry, then expands to a new dimension on the back half. Finishes with outstanding persistence and noble tannins that coat the incisors. The wine's oak component strikes this taster as particularly suave and harmonious. .

Bright deep ruby. Black raspberry and musky, roasted Darnajou oak on the nose. Remarkably deep in the mouth, with an extraordinary creamy sweetness. Sappy black raspberry fruit offers a powerful impression of solidity. The huge but noble tannins dust the front teeth. Extraordinarily long and sweet on the back end; if any wine can be described as liquid sex, this might be the one. The first time I tried this young wine was with Jean-Luc Thunevin in St. Emilion at the end of March: it was the best 2003 I tasted on the Right Bank of Bordeaux on my spring tour. But then Pingus has a sweetness that Bordeaux can never match.

A candidate for perfection, the profound 2003 Pingus possesses an awesome smoky, blackberry, and cassis-scented nose intermixed with hints of espresso roast, lead pencil shavings, cedar, and subtle new oak. Sensational concentration, a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, alcohol, and wood, and a blockbuster finish lasting nearly a minute result in one of the most profound wines ever made in Spain. It should age effortlessly for two decades or more. Robert Parker-Wine Advocate # 159 Jun 2005 Page Break