Dense staining ruby with no edge. Young stimulus package astringency showing bright green stemminess, baby Granny Smith and Chinese five-spice alongside your typical sordid steamy Malbec frame. Great funk awash with roasted vanilla oak and deep fruit with a high-note of brassy polish.
I am NOT the world’s biggest Malbec fan. Let’s get that straight right up front. As an American heavily focused on California wines, I often find them funky and weird but this stuff is flat-out decadent stuff, CRUSHING all your Malbec-phobias into a streamlined, focused singularity of tangy fruit and structure.
In the mouth a sweaty liveliness blasts the palate with ripe fresh fruit as grainy grapefruit minerality and a decadent wash of bloody meat and warm fruit marvelously integrate the brash streak of oak introducing the sweet tannins.
2014 PASCUAL TOJO Malbec Riserva Barrancas Vineyards Mendoza Argentina 14.5
Stephen McConnell 