Guía Peñin (97/100)
R. Parker (97/100)
I previewed a preliminary blend for the 2025 bottling of the NV Fino Viña Corrales Pago Balbaína while I tasted the current vintages of Pingus in Ribera del Duero, and the wine blew me away. It has a deep golden color and a complex and nuanced nose, creamy ("mantecoso"), complex and nutty, with tons of esparto grass notes, showing old average age. It's definitely an aged and nuanced old Fino. There's no room here for lightness; it's complex and big, powerful and intense, pungent, long and persistent but in balance and with elegance and good freshness.