Bodegas Pinea began as the brainchild of Hugo Del Pozzo and Vicente Pliego during a conversation that was held in Ribera Del Duero’s so-called “Golden Mile,” which is known as one of the world’s most exceptional regions for growing and producing Tempranillo grapes.
The winery set out to produce a line of 100% Tempranillo wines in order to showcase the many facets of the grape, as well as the exceptional terroir of the region they selected.
The winemaking team features a cast of world-class oenologists, all of whom are led by Isaac Fernandez, who has been declared by Wine Spectator to be “…one of Spain’s brightest young winemaking stars.”
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17 by Pinea Review
17 has the honor of taking its name from a momentous year for the winery, 2017. In 2017, the winery proceeded to launch its flagship wine, Pinea, commercially.
The wine is 100% Tempranillo, as it is spontaneously fermented with native yeasts before aging for 20 months in a combination of both French and American oak.
17 by Pinea Summary
- Brand: Pinea
- Country: Spain
- Region: Ribera Del Duero
- Wine Type: Red Wine
- Varietals: Tempranillo
- ABV: 14.5%
Appearance
The wine is a deep, dark, reddish-brown color in the glass. It features big, thick legs when you swirl the glass, which fall heavily down.
Smell
This is an impressively complex wine with plenty of intense aromas.
There is black cherry, oak, tobacco, cedar, and some baking spice notes, which are noticeable pretty much immediately.
Sweet plums, raspberries, and blackberries fall in line after the initial wave of aromatics, and everything mingles together nicely to lend the wine a sense of balance.
Taste
The flavor is as robust as the nose. There are overripe black cherries, rich plum sauce, a hint of scorched earth, and plenty of oak up front.
This is all complimented by bits of tobacco, baking spice, and dill that work as a nice supporting cast.
The texture here is remarkably heavy, with a dense body, big grainy tannins, and ample acidity.
This is definitely a wine built to be paired with food.
What Does 17 by Pinea Pair With?
So let’s talk about options because the door is wide open for this one. Your best bet will be to stick to intense flavors in order to match power with power.
I would go for aged hard cheeses. Something like a nice manchego would do particularly well here.
You could also go for richer meats, such as wagyu beef burgers, seasoned venison chops, filet mignon, and pork sausages.
If you aren’t as big on meats, you could also do a heartier bean and lentil soup, thickened up to have enough body to work well with the wine.
You could also try portabello mushrooms and green peppers skewed and roasted over an open fire, as the umami from the mushrooms and the little bit of char you will get work really well with this bottle.
What Are Wines That Are Similar to 17 by Pinea?
There is a lot to explore here. Take a step outside of Ribera Del Duero, and you will find Tempranillo in one of Spain’s top-producing wine regions, Rioja!
I would go with a Rioja Reserva or a Gran Reserva if you want this kind of intensity, as they are aged for a prolonged period of time in oak and bottle prior to being released.
As a particularly fun option, I would give another one of Pinea’s wines, their Korde Rosé. It is another 100% Tempranillo wine but is much lighter and cleaner than the 17.
Thanks to prolonged skin contact (at least by rosé standards), it soaks up a lot of flavor and color from the grapes.
This gives the wine a light, easy-drinking body paired with deep red fruit flavors and an unparalleled intensity for rosé.
Final Thoughts
This is a monster of a wine in the best ways possible. It features everything you would want in a big, robust, grippy red, and I highly recommend trying it if you can.