FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 28
Dominio de Pingus 'Pingus' 2016
A Danish winemaker named his wine after his childhood nickname, lost part of his first vintage to a ship that vanished near the Azores, and twenty-one years later made the 2016, 8,100 bottles he called his ideal of what Ribera del Duero should be.
- Maker
- Dominio de Pingus
- By price in wine
- 46 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Dominio de Pingus, Ribera del Duero, Spain
- Founder and winemaker
- Peter Sisseck, born in Copenhagen in 1962
- Grape
- 100% Tempranillo (known locally as Tinto Fino)
- Vineyards
- Very old bush vines in two plots, Barrosso and San Cristobal, in the La Horra area
- Production
- 8,100 bottles of the 2016
- Bottled
- August 2018, after a couple of extra months in barrel
- Farming
- Biodynamic since 2000 or 2001 (sources differ)
- The Wine Advocate
- 100 points (Luis Gutierrez, December 2019)
- Release price
- $850, as reported by The Wine Advocate
- Format
- 750 ml bottle
The boy they called Pingus
Peter Sisseck was born in Copenhagen on May 5, 1962. As a boy of about 12 he visited his uncle, Peter Vinding-Diers, who was then making wine in Bordeaux, and went home to Denmark already resolved to become a winemaker. After working stints in Bordeaux and California he studied agriculture in Copenhagen, according to one account, then returned to his uncle's cellar for more experience. The winery he later joined describes him as an agronomist and winemaker who graduated from the University of Bordeaux.
It was his uncle who suggested he go to Spain to look at a project in what was then a little-known region, Ribera del Duero. In 1990 Sisseck arrived at Hacienda Monasterio to manage the winery and plant its vineyards, which he still tends. He could not speak Spanish and knew only the traditional winemaking of Bordeaux, but the arid landscape and the region's old native vines convinced him the area could make exceptional wine.
Pingus was his childhood nickname. By the 1995 vintage he had found several ancient vineyards near La Horra and began making his own wine under that name. Today he makes it in a cellar on the bank of the Duero at Quintanilla de Onesimo, a long way from the corner of another producer's warehouse where it started.
Old vines, low yields
Pingus comes from two small plots of very old Tempranillo: about 2.5 hectares at Barrosso, with vines more than 65 years old, and about 1.5 hectares at San Cristobal, with vines more than 70 years old. One report dates the old vineyards to 1929. The vines are trained in the traditional bush, or en vaso, system, and Sisseck has said they were never fertilized or treated with pesticides. Average yields have been unusually low, around 12 hectoliters per hectare.
From the start Sisseck pushed the vines hard, pruning them back, straightening and lowering trunks, and cutting canes to one or two buds. The vineyards have been farmed biodynamically since the turn of the century; one source dates it to 2000 and another to 2001. 'We work to keep [the vineyard] as lush as possible, for sun protection,' he said in 2022. 'In the village they laugh at us.'
Production is tiny, typically under 500 cases, and in poor years no Pingus is made at all. The estate also makes a second wine, Flor de Pingus, from rented vineyards in La Horra, and a single-barrel cuvee called Amelia from a parcel of century-old vines, first made in 2003. Since 2006 Sisseck has also run PSI, a joint project with local growers meant to save old vines.
Rejected at home, lost at sea
The first vintage, 1995, was about 325 cases. Spanish merchants turned it down, so Sisseck sold it to the French. At the Bordeaux futures tastings in March 1996 Robert Parker tasted it and gave it a score of 96 to 100 on the back cover of The Wine Advocate, calling it 'one of the greatest and most exciting wines I have ever tasted.'
Then the story turned into legend. In November 1997 a ship carrying a US-bound shipment of 75 cases of the 1995 disappeared near the Azores in the North Atlantic. The first Pingus had been priced at $200 a bottle; after the shipwreck American prices soon rose to $495. As one later account put it, the loss only fueled demand for the elusive red.
2016: seamless
Across Ribera del Duero, 2016 began with a cold, rainy spring that refilled underground water reserves, delayed budding and raised yields significantly. From May on there was no rain, with heat in July, late August and early September, and some vines stopped ripening to avoid dehydration. The harvest came late, and producers found the moderate conditions let them pick at the right moment. The best wines came from old vines where yields were kept in check.
Sisseck had been changing his methods. Starting with the 2009 and 2010 vintages, as warmer temperatures set in, he began working with higher yields to avoid overconcentrated wines. 'I used to be the last to pick, and now I am probably the first,' he said. After the 2005 vintage taught him that high-alcohol years pull more tannin from oak, he stopped using new barrels. Yet a report on a 2022 tasting described the 2016 Pingus as denser, a result of lower yields, even though yields rose across much of the region that year.
The wine spent a couple of extra months in barrel and was bottled in August 2018. There were 8,100 bottles. Luis Gutierrez of The Wine Advocate, who gave it 100 points in December 2019, wrote that few Pingus vintages had shown such integration of oak and found in it 'precision and symmetry, elegance and austerity a la Audrey Hepburn,' an updated version of the 1996. Sisseck called it seamless and told him it was probably his ideal of what wine from Ribera del Duero should be.
Cheaper than Romanee-Conti
James Suckling also scored the 2016 at 100 points and placed it in his Top 100 wines of 2019, asking, 'The benchmark Pingus?' Tim Atkin gave it 99 in January 2018 and Josh Raynolds of Vinous 98 in February 2021, with a drinking window running to 2038. The Wine Advocate suggested drinking it between 2021 and 2036.
In 2022 Sisseck poured the 2016 alongside the 2018 and 2010 at a tasting seminar in New York. When an editor teased him about the price, '$1,000 a bottle?', he smiled: 'It's cheaper than Romanee-Conti!' The Wine Advocate lists the 2016's release price as $850. In October 2026 one US retailer listed it at $1,195, though out of stock.
The numbers
- Vineyards
- About 4 hectares in two plots: Barrosso (2.5 ha) and San Cristobal (1.5 ha)
- Average yield
- About 12 hectoliters per hectare
- Bottles produced
- 8,100
- The Wine Advocate (Luis Gutierrez)
- 100 (December 2019)
- James Suckling
- 100 (December 2019)
- Tim Atkin
- 99 (January 2018)
- Vinous (Josh Raynolds)
- 98 (February 2021)
Timeline
Peter Sisseck is born in Copenhagen.
Sisseck arrives in Ribera del Duero to plant and manage Hacienda Monasterio.
First vintage of Pingus, about 325 cases.
Robert Parker scores the 1995 Pingus 96-100 after tasting it in Bordeaux.
A ship carrying 75 cases of the 1995 to the United States disappears near the Azores.
First vintage of Amelia, a single-barrel Pingus cuvee.
Sisseck founds PSI, a project with local growers to save old vines.
The 2016 harvest: a rainy spring followed by a rainless, hot summer in Ribera del Duero.
Tim Atkin scores the 2016 Pingus at 99 points.
The 2016 Pingus is bottled; 8,100 bottles are produced.
James Suckling scores the 2016 at 100 points; it later appears in his Top 100 of 2019.
Luis Gutierrez of The Wine Advocate publishes his 100-point review of the 2016.
Josh Raynolds of Vinous scores the 2016 at 98 points.
Sisseck pours the 2016 with the 2018 and 2010 at a tasting seminar in New York.
The world in 2016
The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.
The Panama Papers, 11.5 million leaked documents, are published.
The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union.
The Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro, the first held in South America.
The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908.
Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 2019 | $850 | Asking price, not a saleRelease price per bottle as listed with The Wine Advocate's review; the release date itself is not given. |
| Oct 2026 | $1,195 | Asking price, not a saleSingle 750 ml bottle listed by a US retailer, shown as out of stock. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Dominio de Pingus 'Pingus' 2016 is number 46 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (28 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- 'Pingus' was Peter Sisseck's childhood nickname.
- Spanish merchants rejected the first vintage, so Sisseck sold it to the French.
- A US-bound shipment of 75 cases of the first vintage vanished at sea near the Azores in 1997, and prices jumped.
- Sisseck once picked later than anyone in the village; since the warm 2009 and 2010 vintages he says he is probably the first.
- Sisseck stopped using new oak after the 2005 vintage.
- In poor years no Pingus is made at all.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026