Wine & Soul Pintas 2020

2020 Pintas
Wine & Soul
Douro Valley, Portugal

95-97 pts Wine Advocate

Pintas is one of Portugal's greatest red wines and one of it's best vineyards. Starting in 2001 with the first vintage, this has been one of the most iconic wines in a small cadre of top red wines from Portugal.  If you love the wines of Bordeaux, the Northern Rhone, Napa and Rioja, Pintas has some nods to these regions but is truly its own unique expression of this incredible vineyard site.

- One of the top wines in all of Portugal, a complexity beast!
- One of my all-time favorite wines and vineyards in all of the world.
- A classic representation of Douro Valley terroir
- Field blend of 30+ grapes
- Vines 87+ years-old
- Steep schist hard rock terraces
- 20 months in only 30% new French oak
- More Northern Rhone meets Bordeaux in style
- Will age for 20+ years easy, likely 30+
- One of my favorite wines, I buy this every year
- Decant 1-3 hours, though optimal with a few years of age

95-97 points Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2020 Pintas is a field blend (over 40 grapes, but the dominant grapes are Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Nacional) from old vines (around 90 years) aged for 20 months in 20% new French oak. It comes in at 14.4% alcohol. This may have been a tougher vintage in many respects, but it was a small crop harvested quickly and early. This multilayered Pintas is ripe and darkly flavored but never over the top and rather fresh. There's plenty of power on the finish too, and it simply grips the palate. This needs to be socked away for a few years. I tasted the final blend and out of barrel, but it was not yet bottled, about three weeks away. Plan on cellaring it. It should age for 30 years, more or less.

A lot of people complain about the 2020 vintage, hot and difficult, but Wine & Soul had a fine year, often propelled by the ability to harvest small crops quickly. Consistency, even in difficult vintages, is often the sign of a great winery.