(Decanter) - How can Spanish red wine take the next step up? Peter Sisseck of Pingus has a few ideas, writes Jane Anson in her latest Decanter.com column. 

Building a great Spanish red wine

You might not expect Peter Sisseck to be the voice of restraint.

And yet, here I am listening to the Danish creator of Pingus, pretty much the original definition of white hot Spain, say, ‘Telmo (Rodriguez, of Remelluri) wants to go back to the artisan roots of winemaking. That is wonderfully poetic, and something that I also believe in, but we have to be pragmatic at the same time.’

I called him to say sorry not to have seen him at last week’s First Encounter of Viticultures conference that was held at Remelluri, and to ask whether he wanted to add anything to my summary of the event, as he was one of the co-signatories of the Terroir Manifesto signed in Madrid in January 2016.

Spanish wine being sold ‘too cheaply’

It turns out that the speech that Sisseck had planned to give at the event would have been in defence of the Spanish DO system; issuing a call to unify behind it and find a way to make a change from within.

‘The main issue for Spanish growers is that the country’s wine is being sold too cheaply,’ he says.

‘We have to help growers get a decent return, but by focusing only on rescuing forgotten grapes and rejuvenating isolated regions we risk not being able to bring about real change’.

Sisseck himself is proof that by focusing on terroir you can bring an appellation to the public consciousness, and more. When he arrived in Ribera del Duero in 1990 the region was already recognised for Vega Sicilia, but the other grape growers in the area rarely bottled their own wines, and even more rarely received any reward for it.

He started off at Hacienda Monasterio but came across a plot of ancient vines and persuaded the farmer to sell him the grapes that became Pingus.