Serious wine enthusiasts who love Spanish wines may know of the famous winery Pingus. It produces some of the best wines of Spain. Their winemaking facility is located just outside the beautiful city of Valladolid. It’s extremely private, bordering on secretive, so they don’t accept visitors. They also produce wines in very small batches that rarely make it even into the top wine stores.

VISITING PINGUS, PRODUCERS OF SOME OF THE BEST WINES OF SPAIN

The winery doesn’t even have a sign. In fact, the winery looks just like a regular Spanish village house, except that it’s larger than most. It has a very understated gate and there is nothing to give passersby the impression that there is a high-tech winemaking facility inside. In fact, it has its own cutting-edge laboratory just by the gate.

THE ART OF WINEMAKING

So winemaking at Pingus is literally almost done to a science. But obviously, all the hard work has paid off. One of their vintages was the first Spanish wine to receive 100 points from Robert Parker. This is one of the reasons why it has achieved cult status among wine lovers.

One fine morning in autumn, we were driving around wineries about one hour away from Valladolid when our guide pointed out the village where Pingus is located from afar.

“In that village is Pingus. They make some of the best wines in Spain,” she said. “But they are so secretive that I have never been inside, even after 25 years of doing wine tours in this region.”

VISITING THE PINGUS WINERY

Of course, we knew about Pingus. And I for one love taking on the seemingly impossible. So somehow we secured an appointment, and in the afternoon we drove over for a private visit.

Apparently, this cult winery rarely receives visitors. And, indeed, that afternoon, we were the only visitors in the winery. We met with Yulya, the Pingus winemaker who actually is a Russian lady born near the city of Nizhny Novgorod. She studied winemaking in Moscow and then found herself working in Bordeaux, France. This was the fateful connection that led to her transfer to Spain to make wines at Pingus.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon with Yulya doing wine tastings straight out of the barrel, living and loving a #Travelife.

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