Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with a wide range of foods from beef and pork to game or even meat-based pastas. This is what Malbec is all about.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Malbec included 5% Cabernet Sauvignon in its makeup and received the same elevage as the Cabernet. Attractive aromas of pain grille, smoke, mocha, spice box, and black cherry set the stage for a plush, full-bodied, succulent wine with intense flavors and a seamless finish. It is likely to evolve for 1-2 years but can be approached now.
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Wine Enthusiast
Heavily charred and roasted throughout, with a blackened nose. The palate is broad and chewy, with thick tannins and roasted, ripe flavors of blackberry, licorice and bitter chocolate. Remains severely toasted all the way to the final drop; aged in 80% new French oak (apparently fully toasted oak).
Susana Balbo graduated from Don Bosco University in Mendoza in 1981 and established herself as Argentina’s first female enologist and, since then, has been considered one of Argentina’s top winemakers. Three times her industry peers elected her to the Presidency of Wines of Argentina because of her work ethic, innovative winemaking techniques and dedication to the worldwide success of Argentine wine.
After working for twenty years as a consulting winemaker, Susana founded her own brand in 2000. In 2001, she broke ground for her winery in Agrelo in the Luján de Cuyo district of Mendoza. There, she makes her Susana Balbo "Signature" line of wines, as well as wines under the Crios, Nosotros and BenMarco labels. Her winemaking approach for the wines that bear her name is to seamlessly apply her human touch and enhance the grape’s innate character.
Over several decades of winemaking in Argentina, Susana has earned a reputation for a pioneering spirit and innovation. She is known for experimenting with various barrel sizes and aging regimens, fermentation of wine in egg-shaped concrete fermenters, and wild yeast fermentations. The Wine Advocate's Luis Gutierrez dubbed her groundbreaking barrel-fermented Torrontés one of the "10 Argentine Wines to Drink before You Die."
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.