Winemaker Notes
The Reserve bottling is a serious step up. It is fermented in vat, but then moved to barrel for 12 to 15 months of aging. The 2006 version is intense, juicy and pure, with a licorice, floral and mineral-filled finish. The wine shows clearly outstanding potential.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Malbec Reserva was produced from vines averaging 75 years of age with indigenous yeast fermentation, malolactic in barrel, and aging for 12-15 months in new and second use French oak. The wine is opaque purple in color with an alluring nose of wood smoke, Asian spices, balsamic, black cherry, and a hint of blueberry. Ripe, savory, and sweetly-fruited in the mouth along with excellent depth and concentration, it is already revealing some complexity and enough structure to unwind for several more years. Drink this pleasure-bent effort from 2012 to 2023.
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Wine Spectator
A dark, loamy style, featuring hefty cocoa and espresso notes, backed by dark roasted vanilla and mulled fig fruit. This stays focused and polished though, despite the dark profile, with a long fruit- and licorice-filled finish. Should open up more with modest cellaring, too. Drink now through 2012. 824 cases made.
Most distinguished and celebrated from Argentina’s Mendoza, Malbec has seen runaway success since the early 2000s. Mendoza’s agreeable, continental climate with hot, dry summers and cold snowy winters allows the perfect conditions for growing outstanding Malbec. This grape is easy to like for its lusty, deep flavors and aromas of blackberry, plum, red cherry, autumn spice and tilled earth. It’s easy to find delicious, fruit-driven, affordable everyday examples and in prices beyond, quite exceptional ones with dense, supple textures that make them capable of aging.
EPC16939_2008 Item# 110295