Tasting - Tonel 46 Malbec Reserve

Name: Tonel -  Los Toineles Vineyards - 46 Malbec Reserve
Variety: 100% Vermentino
Region: Perdriel, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza
Country: Argentina
Year: 2014
Price: $8.95

Wine Critic Notes: The 2014 Tonel 46 Malbec is produced, like all the wines from Los Toneles, from their estate vineyard in the zone Los Chacayes in Tunuyán in the Uco Valley. I find complexity and depth here, floral aromas and a touch of spices that make it very attractive. The approachable palate has melted tannins and juicy fruit, balanced and soft. - Robert Parker; Wine Advocate; 90pts

Wine Folly: pg 125 Malbec - This wine is described as being very full bodied, mid to high alcoholic taste, mid to low tannin properties, and mid to low acidity. This varietal is most important to Argentina, where it came by way of France. This style typically contains notes of red plum, blackberry, vanilla, sweet tobacco, and cocoa.
pg 200 Luján de Cuyo Malbec - Malbec's produced within this region have more black fruit flavors in a distinctly lush style. The subregions Agrelo (elegance + power), Vistalba (minerality), Las Compuertas (elegance), and Perdriel (tannin) offer the most distinguishable differences. The grape grown in this region typically has notes of blackberry, plum sauce, black cherry, asian 5-spice, and graphite.

My review: The nose. The NOSE. Man oh man, I can not get enough of the nose of this Malbec, it's allspice, nutmeg, huge doses of vanilla soaked oak, with tons of dried berries and raisins. The wine itself is silky smooth, dry, but not as much as you'd expect from it's murky black shade, and the tannin presence is surely there, but intermingle satisfyingly with juicy berry notes. Black cherries, currants, dried raisins, milk chocolate, oak aged vanilla extract, and hints of cinnamon really round this red out. This is the kind of red you'd want to have with a huge honkin slice of cheese cake - or heck, just give me a thick smore with all the fixins. 


No food was had, while tasting this wine.