Buttery, rich and hedonistic. Nine months in new oak barrels and only 4,000 bottles made.
This treasure of Argentine wine making was first discovered by Anuva about 18 months ago and I have been pouring it a wine tastings ever since. Lucky me, since I get to taste it every time. It has aged beautifully.
The story of this wine is one of the determination of Julian Cavagnaro, the owner and namesake of this winery, to make great Malbec (not to mention olive oil which he also produces). “I am fascinated by high end Malbec,” says Julian.
And I, in turn, became fascinated by his product.
My business partner, Yuji, swears that this Malbec both tastes and smells like butter which is an unusual characteristic for a red wine. I have observed this characteristic myself over the last few bottles I have opened especially.
Yuji also loves to pour himself extremely small amounts – like a sip at a time – into enormous wine glasses as “it just looks great” and he believes that this will help him to avoid turning the same colour as the liquid in the glass. He will drink an entire bottle over the course of 3-4 days in this fashion, obsessing over the nuances of flavour and aroma change while programming the back end of our website.
This wine has gone particularly well with asado but would also go well with a cigar, dark chocolate, or roasted lamb. I highly suggest picking up a bottle before it’s all gone. Julian only makes this wine when his grapes are of high enough quality – meaning he didn’t make a 2005 and is only considering whether the 2006 will be good enough to put the word “reserve” on. Being an obsessive perfectionist about one’s product will make one do this. In turn this makes my job very easy – I do not have to justify the quality as Julian has already done that for me.
Julian’s family house can be found amongst his olive trees and vines in the region of Maipú, Mendoza as well as on his website. Nothing about his operation is geared toward massive commercial enterprise: the olive oil comes in unmarked bottles, the hostería sleeps four, and the Malbec is produced in limited quantities and guaranteed to be of the utmost quality.
Daniel Karlin is founder of Anuva Vinos, a premium wine club that hand sources limited production wines from Argentina. He makes his home in Buenos Aires where he offers wine tastings to visitors from all parts. www.anuvawines.com