Bodegas y Vinedos Alnardo - Peter Sisseck - PSI 2018

JAMES SUCKLING: "A rich red with chocolate, ripe fruit, walnuts and spice. Full-bodied and round with ripe tannins and a flavorful finish. Plenty of ripe fruit at the intense finish and lots of old-vine character with bark and wet-earth undertones. Real deal. Drink or hold."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "I had already tasted the unbottled 2018 PSI, which saw a jump in quality after they got a new winery where they had much better working conditions. This wine is produced with purchased grapes from 200 hectares in around 750 plots and 20 different villages throughout Ribera del Duero (they now rent and work 50 hectares of these vineyards themselves). In 2018, they were able to use some 12% Garnacha and 2% other grapes, including whites that are found intermixed with the Tinta del País/Tempranillo in the old vineyards. Garnacha adds freshness, and the wine shows it—the character of the grape comes through in the blend. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured mostly in 5,000-liter and 10,000-liter oak vats, but 20% of the volume aged in used French barriques for 18 months. The color is quite light (relatively speaking), bright and lively, the nose perfumed, floral and elegant, like no PSI before. The palate is medium-bodied, with fine tannins, and it feels terribly balanced and beautifully textured. It's elegant more than powerful but full of energy. This is without a doubt the finest PSI to date. Viva Garnacha! 360,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2020."

DECANTER: "Pound for pound, Psi is one of the best-value Spanish reds around, a wine that has the slick Sisseck signature in its perfectly proportioned balance of ripe (but in no sense overripe), warm and creamy dark fruit and a streak of Ribera cool-night freshness, the tannins perhaps a touch more gripping, but a very satisfying, resonant, savoury, food-friendly red with ageing potential."