Obliteratingly purple right out to the edge.  Massive nose of baby baby fruit and huge brier affronts you and only settles down into a deeper richer, more mature fruit situation with heavy decanting.

This is practically a barrel-sample in mouth-feel and having watched a wide range of barrel-samples mature over the years, I can tell you this is a good one.  You’ve heard me say “Buy a case and drink one a year” many times but with THIS wine?!?  Buy a case and drink one every TWO years.

Yet another label broadcasting the incredible, oft-overlooked KNIGHT’S VALLEY in Sonoma and this little darling right here will change your mind about Malbec.  Funky and vegetal?  No way.  Weird and meaty?  Not a trace.  Bright, focused, miserably fruited–black and dense with an absolute WALL of briar and acid.  Blind I would probably say Alexander Valley Cab.  With considerable air, more spicy notes are visible in the bouquet and a definite woodsy, sweet oak hint–JUST A HINT–becomes distinct.

In the mouth, fruit takes a back seat to the blistering acid and tannin–JUST LIKE A BARREL SAMPLE SHOULD–but it is all there.  Black cherry concentrate over a grape Crush spritz of acid and flinty minerality making this a ‘bec you won’t soon forget.  It rounds out on the palate, leaving the tannins of youth behind and finishing on spicy round fruit.  The keyword here is: BALANCE.  A near-perfect cellar-candidate–incredibly enjoyable now but easily something that will last 20 years.

2014 CADLE FAMILY WINES Malbec Knight’s Valley Sonoma 14.0

http://www.cadlefamilywines.com