Winemaker Notes
This Malbec has a very intense and beautiful bouquet with plenty of wild blackberries, licorice, and spices. On the palate, the wine shows a remarkable balance with very elegant, delicate and silky tannins. Best served with all kinds of barbecued meats and cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
A selection from old vineyards in Las Compuertas and Vistalba, two of the highest sectors in Luján de Cuyo, this is rich in liqueur-like flavors. Slowly, with air, more detail emerges, malbec’s cherry and violet aromas coalescing within that sweet density. Soft and rich, this is a wine to drink in winter, alongside cured sausages.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Gran Reserva Malbec is pure Malbec from low-yielding vines in Lujan de Cuyo and is fermented in concrete vats and aged for one year in French oak barrels, one-third new, one-third second-use and the rest third-use. It is more classical and balanced, with subtle notes of spices and ripe red and black fruit. In the palate, fruit and wood are still in the process of integrating, so I’d wait one more year before pulling the cork. Surprisingly it has the freshness and some of the minty notes more often associated with Bordeaux grapes. This very same wine is also sold in the United States under the Donaire brand. Drink 2015-2018.
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.
AIW11FMGRM_2011 Item# 135144