Light ruby thinning to clear pink edges.  Easily one of the lightest Malbec’s I have seen in my life.  Quite surprising on that initial pour.  Big carmel-ey dark chocolate wet wool nose rich and round with baked desserts and frosting searing on hot cookie-sheets.  Mint-driven evergreen boughs keep everything firmly out of the ‘funk-zone’ which befalls many versions of this variety.

In the mouth, a juxtaposition between round and spicy, clean fruit and barnyard screams Malbec all over again.  Acid-driven on entry to the point of Cahors-comparisons, it quickly rounds to a considerably more New World mouth-feel, lush and round, smokey and meaty, until that lovely off-ish green moldy Malbec beauty flashes through the finish, muddying and mellowing the tannin.

This is my first wine from Arizona and I gotta say…. As hesitant and apprehensive as I was: This is a serious winner.

2015 ARIDUS Malbec Arizona 13.8

www.ariduswineco.com