Bodegas Pittacum, Bierzo Tinto

Intense cherry-red colour with a striking purplish rim, very clean and brilliant. It is marked by a complex bouquet, with a wide range of aromas including red fruits (blackberry, raspberry), liquorice and mineral tones, pleasant woody hints, spices – pepper and oregano – and an agreeable backdrop redolent of smoked cocoa. Warm in the mouth, with a significant concentration of fruit, pleasant balsamic resonances, dense and fleshy with sweet tannins. It is a tasty wine to be savoured with a persistent finish.

The Spain-based Pittacum winery belongs to the Terras Gauda Group. Apart from Pittacum, the group also has three other wineries. Each of these wineries specialises in a particular area and producing full-bodied grapes based on the terroir quality of that region. This way, equal importance and respect are provided to some of the premier wine regions of Spain. The Pittacum Winery was established in 1999.

Initially, a group of six friends launched Pittacum to make the best use of the wine potential of the El Bierzo region. The grape varietal of Mencia, known as a noble varietal in this region, was given exclusive focus in the Pittacum winery. In 2002, the reputed Terras Gauda group understood the potential of this winery and acquired the same into its fold. However, they didn’t want to change the name of this winery. The winery is named Pittacum, because at the time of building it, the makers found a pittacum (a measurement used by the early Romans) in the construction site. Pittacum wines are made from grapes grown on carefully-selected plots across the vineyards of El Bierzo. There are close to 200 plots with different soil qualities and climatic conditions across these vineyards to grow grapes of different intensities.

The fruits are harvested by hand and only the ripe ones are carefully taken to the cellars to avoid breakage of fruits. The 1500L stainless steel vats used here are temperature-controlled to retain the flavours of the fruits. The ageing process starts immediately after the malolactic fermentation is done. Egg white is used for clarifying the wines before they are aged. The vineyards, located in some of the best slots in El Bierzo, are blessed with unique microclimate conditions to produce fruits with firm tannins and natural acidity. The group uses only vines that are between 50 and 110 years old for cultivating on these vineyards, which explains the complexity of these wines.