The Peñín Guide to the Wines of Spain 2024 has awarded more points in its new edition than in its entire history. In the 2023 edition, it broke its glass ceiling, awarding 100 points for the first time, and it did so twice.
Now it has awarded its maximum score to three iconic Spanish reds, two from the DO Ribera del Duero and one from the DO Calificada Rioja, and for the first time to a white, from the DO Rías Baixas. Specifically, the 100 points were awarded to the riverside reds Vega Sicilia Único Reserva Especial (which includes wines from the 2010, 2011 and 2012 vintages) and Pingus 2021 by Peter Sisseck, the Rioja La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 from 2010 and the Albariño from Pontevedra Pazo Señorans Selección de Añada 2013.
According to the Peñín Guide, “these wines represent perfection in their styles, territoriality and local identity, and the stylistic identification of each of the wineries represented.” They say that awarding the highest rating to a white and three reds for the first time is “a true milestone in the guide’s history.”
These four wines have stood out among the more than 9,700 wines in the new edition, and “show the dedication of the producers in their search for excellence.” Up to eight wines have garnered 99 points in the new edition (from the Bierzo, Jerez, Priorat and Valdeorras denominations; as well as a sparkling Corpinnat and another wine without DO).
Speaking to the Comer La Vanguardia channel, Carlos González, director of the Peñín Guide, affirms that “they are great wines that have irrefutably earned 100 points.” He adds that “I have never seen such quality in the 16 years that I have been in the guide, and in such a transversal way. There are no longer only two or three prevailing areas, and a single determined style is no longer imposed”.
De Vega Sicilia Único Reserva Especial Carlos González states that it is “the best example of the tradition of vintage cut wines, wines in which balance is sought through the identity of different vintages”. The Pingus 2021, from Dominio de Pingus, is said to be “the maximum expression and elegance of a fine red wine. A red that stands out for its perfectly rounded and silky tannins, something unique and almost unthinkable in a wine of such a young age”. De La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 of 2010 Javier Luengo, editorial director of the Peñín Guide, affirms that it is “the greatness of the great classic Rioja wines in a superb vintage that will allow this wine to grow with elegance and complexity. He ensures that the first white wine to have achieved the highest rating “shows all the potential contained in Albariño-based white wines, and a clear commitment to aging Galician whites”.
