2017 Bodegas y Vinedos Pintia (Vega Sicilia) Toro

Bodegas Vega Sicilia is Spain's most prestigious wine estate, and has produced some of the most famous wines in the country's history. Founded in the 1860's and based in Ribera del Duero, two hours from Madrid, initial plantings at the estate included Bordeaux grapes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec, along with the indigenous Tinto Fino (Tempranillo).

Other Reviews....
Toro (almost) didn't suffer the frost of 2017 that decimated Ribera del Duero, and in that early harvest, the grapes for the 2017 Pintia were picked between September 6th and 17th trying to keep the freshness and acidity. They also did a softer extraction, reduced the percentage of wine that went through malolactic in barrel and used less American oak for the élevage, trying to achieve a more elegant wine. Still the wine is ripe, juicy, round and powerful at 15% alcohol, with a mellow palate with a pH of 3.9 and 4.5 grams of acidity. The wine matured in new and used oak barrels for 12 months. It feels quite fresh and harmonious, not showing any heat, not as fresh and atypical as 2016. It keeps the poise and the balance and has abundant but fine tannins. These wines repay time in bottle, and even if approachable now, it should get better with time. It's like a refined version of the 2015. A triumph over the adverse conditions of the year. 204,240 bottles, 6,720 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in May 2019. Drink 2022 - 2028.
94+ points
Luis Gutiérrez - Wine Advocate (Dec 2021)

Lots of spices and bright fruit for such a ripe, hot vintage. Some orange-peel undertones. Full-bodied and layered with beautiful fruit and length. Really nicely done. Another two or three years will soften it.
95 points
JamesSuckling.com

A balanced red, with steeped raspberry and wild strawberry fruit flavors framed by fine, lightly chalky tannins. Offers accents of licorice, smoke, spice box and citrus peel that lace the fruit flavors, with lively acidity carrying through to the lightly chewy finish. Drink now through 2029.
91 points
Alison Napjus - Wine Spectator

Vega Sicilia has 110ha in Toro; 72% of the vines on their own rootstocks (a feature of Toro’s phylloxera-resistant soils). Inky colour, with exuberant aromas of blackberries, cranberries and cedar. The palate is all about power, balanced by fine freshness. The dark fruits are overload by black pepper and cumin spices. They are easing back the oak: 35% of the malolactic is in barrel. Only 20% of the ageing is in American oak, the rest French. Drink 2023 - 2027.
94 points
Sarah Jane Evans MW - Decanter