Achaval Ferrer Quimera 2012
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Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
There's a minerality and intensity to this wine with limestone and salt. Full-bodied yet so refined. Sexy and beautiful. Mostly malbec with cabernet franc, merlot and a bit of petit verdot. Drink or hold.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2012 Achaval-Ferrer Quimera is a lively and bright red wine. The wine's excellent balance makes it a great dining wine with lighter meat dishes. Drinks well now. (Tasted: May 9, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Quimera is a multi-zone blend of 50% Malbec, 24% Cabernet Franc, 18% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon matured in new French oak barrels. This is the first vintage where the Malbec takes half of the blend, as they want to increase the Mendoza/Argentina character of the wine reducing the more herbal varieties. Not that the wine has ever been herbal or green, and indeed this 2012 is ripe and aromatic, with just a hint of seriousness. The palate reveals how good the bottle-aging is for this wines, which polishes its tannins and leaves them soft and juicy. You don't really feel the heat of the vintage here, the wine is very fresh and drinks very well, but it should also be able to improve even further.
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Wine Spectator
Tightly wound, with intense cherry and raspberry preserve flavors, flanked by Asian spice notes. Bittersweet chocolate accents appear on the finish. Needs time to flesh out. Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2016 through 2019.
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Founded in 1998, Achaval-Ferrer is a team of friends who dream about great wines. Achaval-Ferrer is also a collection of old vineyards in beautiful places. They are committed to the production of wines that are expressive of their terroir. They are a small winery because this is the key to top quality. Low yields allow the vineyards to express their personality in the grapes. Low intervention winemaking allows the grapes to fully express their vineyard in the bottle. Each of their wines is a different expresson of Malbec: The Mendoza Malbec is about varietal tipicity. Their Quimera blend is about Malbec as the key to complexity and balance. And their Fincas (Single Vineyards) are about how Malbec expresses different soils and microclimates.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
By far the largest and best-known winemaking province in Argentina, Mendoza is responsible for over 70% of the country’s enological output. Set in the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains, the climate is dry and continental, presenting relatively few challenges for viticulturists during the growing season. Mendoza, divided into several distinctive sub-regions, including Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley, is the source of some of the country’s finest wines.
For many wine lovers, Mendoza is practically synonymous with Malbec. Originally a Bordelaise variety brought to Argentina by the French in the mid-1800s, here it found success and renown that it never knew in its homeland where a finicky climate gives mixed results. Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Pinot Noir are all widely planted here as well (and sometimes even blended with each other or Malbec). Mendoza's main white varieties include Chardonnay, Torrontés, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.