Prieto Picudo

Prieto Picudo is a rare, dark-skinned red wine grape variety grown predominantly in and around its homeland of León, northern Spain. The variety is used to create both light rosés and deeply pigmented reds, and can be found as a single-variety wine or in blends with Tempranillo or Mencia.
A typical Prieto Picudo wine has moderate tannins, retains good acidity and may respond well to a judicious use of oak. The aromatic variety gives intense colour to wine, more so than most other varieties grown in Castilla y León. It is sometimes likened to Tempranillo in this respect. Typical flavours include redcurrant, blackberry and liquorice. These wines often have mineral notes (a trait common to many León wines), as well as vanilla and toast where oak has been used. Rosé wines tend to show aromas of strawberry and raspberry with touches of peach, citrus and flowers.
Prieto Picudo grows best in difficult terrains, hot and dry being its preference as it has a high degree of drought resistance. The variety is permitted in León DO (formerly Tierra de Léon) wines as well as Vino de la Tierra Castilla y León wines, a lower classification. Many of the old vines a planted as bush vines and their low creeping growth pattern means that the grapes are susceptible to mould in wet years. The wines from these vineyards are therefore only produced in dry years.
Prieto can mean “dark-skinned” or “dark-haired” in Spanish and is typically described as referring to the variety’s berries. However the fruit has a distinct bluish hue, and another meaning of Prieto (“squeezed”, “tight” or “compressed”) could well allude to the compact, small bunches. Picudo means “pointed”, which most probably references either the tapered shape of the bunches, or the pine-nut shape of the grapes themselves.
Prieto Picudo is virtually unique to Castilla y León but its wines are slowly gaining prominence outside of Spain.