Not sure this winery is still in business… website shows a TON of older vintages, but also some things as new as 2022. And I’ll be honest: I like my malbec to taste like solid, structured, clean Bordeaux wines. A few SA producers do it, Cahors is hit-or-miss, and a few NA makers manage it. Here’s one. I mean, this thing is a big, beautiful ‘bec, lacking any of the blustery, flatulent, weirdly-funky things often plaguing common bottles. At 8, not a speck of bricking and barely polishing into tertiary-regions. Smoky and dense, a supreme ripeness packed with giant jammy fruit aligned with leather and lace. Earthy aspects EXPLODE in the nose: an orchestra of Napa age and structural stability glowing through.
On the palate, the thiccc beauty shines forever-more. It’s gotta be 15-0, but a sharp acidity melds easily to alcoholic heat, never subtracting from gobs of ridiculous bruised berry and mountain briar. Tannin only starting to smooth, the whole package a stunnin example of the variety–and what it can do in good hands in California.
2015 GRATUS VINEYARDS Malbec Napa Valley 14.8
Stephen McConnell 