Community Tasting Notes (35) Avg Score: 93.5 points

  • Dark purple. Modest nose unfurls with whiffs of violet. Dense and extracted; creamy barrel-y body; fruit-forward; lots of blackberry and raspberry jam. To me quite different than the sandy, peppery expression you get from the same grape in the Loire. Tannic and long finish. Drinks young for its 11-year age. Holding the next bottle for another 10 years.

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  • Deep ruby. Lots of green pepper, black fruit and beginning tertiary notes of tobacco and leather. Very smooth tannins. M+ acidity, pronounced intensity and long finish. It is a rich wine. Very Bordeaux like but richer unless we talk Bordeaux 2018. A little to rich for me, which sums up to 91p. If you like rich wine you would without doubt give more points.

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  • A very good wine but far from 100 points. Green pepper, chalk, herbs are more prominent than the fruit. Little tertiary development at this point, so I'd say it's mature in its first phase. I have one other bottle and will probably drink it within five years.

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  • Delícia! Macio, redondo, fruta viva...

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  • 96-97. Phenomenal wine, very elegant. Drinking in its prime.

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  • 2013 Gran Enemigo Gualtallary Cabernet Franc Single Vineyard alc 13.9%
    Mendoza, Argentina

    Dark dense color
    Floral fruity nose
    Palate is high toned with mint and mixed red and purple fruits. Hits hardest in the tip of the tongue with less mid-palate effect
    Quite “ clean” in style. A new world style Cab Franc. Not much oak showing

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  • I don’t think this is anywhere close to ready but if you’re going to give it a try, 4-5 hours in the decanter would be where I would start. Even then it’s a little random and lacking in depth and interest. I’m happy to give this one a few more years before I try it again and I’m at least hopeful it will find itself and improve

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  • Only slightly better than Vignamaggio's Cab Franc which costs less than $50. Out of the bottle this was closed and bitter, but for me in a very satisfying, serious way. Pencil shavings, black coffee, blackberry, green stems, cinnamon. Drink with decant or hold.

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  • 10x 100 Pts with the Wine Advocate Team: The fine red fruit, the elegance and finesse are the highlights here. For me one of the big surprises of the tasting. I‘ve tried this vintage 3 years ago (no CT note) and it showed unbalanced and wild. This was the opposite of that. Great, 96 pts. So light, fresh, delicate, full of finesse. An understandable call by Gutierrez. 96/97 pts

    TN: Intoxicating fine Cabernet France nose with ripe, pure red berries, dark red berries, lots of herbs, smoke, minerality. Superb precision. Delicate, lots of finesse and very inviting. On the palate this continues with the same aromas, all very delicately laced together, lots of minerality to balance the fruit. Even some coffee notes showing up with time. Very fine, round tannins, very high, well-rounded freshness. A very long finish with lots of fruit and minerality. Superb balance, weightless feel. This has it all.

    Decanting: This was sitting in the glass for some time before the tasting and best right at the start of the tasting. An hour later, the same glass showed less harmonious. I wouldn’t decant it too long.

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  • Tasted at the Matter of Taste Zurich 1,000 Points Masterclass. From limestone soils. The fruit was red berry in nature showing a rich and concentrated cherry fruit along with fine sweet spices, whiffs of leather and scorched earth. There was a nice acidic structure and good tension on the palate. This comes across elegant and refined, with detail and fine layers and from memory a step-up from the 2012 which, while also outstanding, I remember as being less refined and more herbal.

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  • This fruit here is somehow still young, forward, and grapey but the texture is mature and resolved with the elegance of silk (in weight) and worn velvet (in texture). The tannins do come in at the end, suggesting, honestly, that this could go years. This good through 2025 and then possibly, possibly even more perfect 2026 - 2027.

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  • Pronounced nose intensity with spices, black fruits, cedar. High acidity and medium+ tannin. Long finish. Did not decant. Heard it was rank perfect score but certainly did not taste like one.

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  • Totally agree with Rolle27, there is no way this wine deserves a perfect score. I guess Wine Advocate really was a one-man band, it has lost all credibility with me since Bob Parker retired. Too bad, it was my bible. This wine is nice but rather routine. You have to suspect somebody got paid for those scores. Save your money.

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  • Dec 26, 2020: Good wine for sure. Medium to full body, pepper and other notes in the aftertaste. Very enjoyable. Can’t see the 100 JS points or 99 RP points, but perhaps the wine will still get better with age. Grade: 93. Nov 26, 2021: with our turkey Thanksgiving dinner. I liked a bit more this time. A very clean „wine only“ taste, red cherries, smooth, no extras, very fruity. My son remarked on the long and pleasant aftertaste. I give it a somewhat generous 94 now, judging it against my 93‘s.

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  • Such a versatile grape this cab franc. This has the spice and backbone of a Chinon with the viscosity and velvet fruit of one from Napa. Understated and composed, raspberry and gravel for me.

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  • Single vineyard, Cab franc, 14% ABV - JV between winemaker, Alejandro Vigil (Chief winemaker for Catena) , and Adrianna Catena - daughter of Nicolas Catena.
    Quite big but not at all OTT. Still very young - will benefit from another 5 years in bottle. Big structure of acidity and tannin, with enough fruit to cover the structural framework but without the fruit dominating. Predominantly black fruit flavours - and very definitely primary at this stage. This is in no way a fruit bomb - it reminded me far more of young Chateau Latour - very well structured but with enough fruit and concentration to satisfy the hedonistic requirement and enough structure to age for a long time. The score represents pleasure today - I am sure the score will improve as it ages and rounds out. Already long, with some complexity that will undoubtedly grow with time.

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  • More power than elegance. Still too young. A good wine but not my favourite. 90.

    Edit: Tasted -12 a few months prior and that was much more ready and more to my liking. Hence me opening this. Should have waited two years maybe?

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  • Ett härligt, finstäm vin som vinner på ett par timmars sekanterna men inte är det idag några 100 poäng som det fått av parker för denna årgång! Spännande att se vad som händer med detta vin framöver!

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  • Needs air and decanting time: changed from rough to lovely and delicate in a couple of hours. Very good CF. Surely not 100 points, but a lovely wine.

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  • Served blind, by a very good friend. My guess was young high-altitude Argentina with mostly Malbec, of high quality. Almost there, but the elegance and refinement in this wine will make it hard to guess Cabernet Franc. Beautiful nose, filled with blue fruit, a bit of fresh leather, some cardamom spice, while remaining cool and elegant - very precise and delicious. On the palate this is full-bodied, but with the elegance and silky smooth feel of Vosne-Romanée. Gorgeous complexity, very soft tannins and a superb finish. Fantastic wine, I can see why Parker has issued 100 points for this, this will definitely get better with 10-20 years on its back.

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  • Very nice. Smooth and balanced with silky mouthfeel.

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  • Rich, concentrated, very dark and young. An evolving nose of bitter chocolate, mint, briary blackberry fruit, cedar smoke, and a creamy cocoa pastry tart. The acid and tannin explode over the palate, and did the same on second day. This is 3-5 years away from fairly evaluating, but it has plenty of fruit density and structure to eventually offer another few points in a few years. Long tannic stone pit finish. Sorry I opened this bottle. Resist temptation.

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  • Very nice, still a bit young.

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  • Tasting: Great wine. Beat all the big names in our blind tasting. To me this was done in a traditional way.

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  • This was my second bottle of this blend, and it fluctuated significantly from the first we opened on Thanksgiving 2018. That bottle was truly excellent. This bottle, however, underperformed in every way. It was just north of being flawed. I couldn't finish it. I cellared all six bottles in my EuroCave. Huge disappointment.

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  • Like many before me, a little surprised at the scores given by Suckling and Parker. As the nose was a little hesitant at first I decanted and, sure, there is a decent depth, dark fruit, almost a little cedary, associate it with the Medoc. Finally some herbal greens show up as well as dusty tannins. Medium body and length and decent acid lift the end. Have no idea if this will better with time...

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  • Merchant tasting at Oinoscent. Much deeper nose vs the Chacayes tested alongside. Much more vibrant and herbal nose, courtesy I guess of the much higher altitude. Complex nose with blue and dark fruit, integrated oak, some spice. Medium bodied, quite high acid but not intrusive, medium fine grained tannins, dark cherries and blackberries, peppercorn in a herbal frame that get more pronounced towards the end. Nice balance, smooth and velvety but lacks the wow factor to justify the near perfect scores that some raters have place on it or the hefty price tag. Still a very good wine indeed. 92-93

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  • 100 points from parker, 99 points from suckling .... seriously?
    The perfect wine? From people that have tasted Saxum JBV 2007, Conterno Barolo 2004 and Latour 1982.
    The short version is - this is a great BBQ and steak wine.
    The long version - this is a great BBQ and steak wine.
    No, this is not the perfect wine. And Parker and whomever will never rate this 100 points if they don´t have some kind of interest in doing it. Final.

    But, don´t blame the wine - it is actually a fine and decent relatively simple wine with silky tannins, dark berries, mushrooms and herbal notes. Linear, vanilla oak and ripe friut (malbec?). Hard not to like, but no way near a perfect wine and shouldn´t really be compared with the big guys. It is not fair to the wine.

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  • Cf. the CellarTracker Article link [lower lft] to get specific info for this vintage, including acclaim.

    Private Preserve after Day 1

    N: RIPE, jammy berries with notes of smoke, rest tough to parse

    P: Med body; RNDISH entry with LOVELY, ALMOST swtish frt met by a bit of astringent pucker which slowly, SEAMLESSLY evolves into a very LONG, impeccably BALANCED finish which ULT shows a very slightly choc swtness to the relatively few, very, VERY fine tannins. SPECTACULAR stuff! :)
    // Day 2: Continued to evolve with a distinctive character that's *not* CA, WA, AU, Bordeaux, or poss even other parts of Argentina, but rather in its OWN terroir-based manner. ¡BRAVO! :) [As of early Nov '20, wine-searcher in essence shows this as unavailable – ‘less one wishes to commit to $170/bottle for a pre-arrival, 12 bottle case!]

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  • Winebar [4 Whites, 8 Reds, & 5 *shared* reds] from 08/10/18 (Vintage Wines Ltd., San Diego, CA): 85% Cabernet Franc & 15% Malbec grown in deep-calcareous & rocky soils @ 4,800 ft elev; Fermented in barriques @ 72° F, 5 day Cold Soak Maceration; Aged in FR oak barrels for 7 mos prior to bottling; Apparently 13.9% ABV, 7.5 g/L T.A., & 3.45 pH.

    N: RIPE, GORGEOUS, but tough to parse

    P: MF, poss Med, body; NICE, ALMOST swtish frt met by some puckerish astringency but without even remotely losing sight of the initial frt as it slowly, seamlessly transitions into quite a LONG, tangy/swt finish with OCCASIONAL *hints* of a very, VERY slight bitterness to the very, VERY fine tannins. Approachable now, this DESERVES until 2020, then drinking through 2025 easily. My EXC+, EXCEPTIONALITY a "lock" with SOME cellaring. 100 pts WA, 99 Suckling, 97 Descorchados, 95 & a Gold @ '18 Decanter World Wine Awards, 93+ Vinous, 93 Tim Atkin, & 91 WE @ $120! [This vendor's $89.95 is $10 < wine-searcher's lowest of an INCREDIBLY *skewed* current listing.]

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  • Readier than expected after an hour in the decanter. Dense and silky but fresh and medium weight. The gentle vanilla notes worked well with porkchop with vanilla-bean-and-celery puree and grilled pears. Lighter bodied and more appealingly approachable than I remember the 2011 being. Fantastic.

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  • Para comemorar os 5 anos de casados, uma garrafa do mesmo ano do casamento, agora com 100RP.
    CF potente e delicioso feito pelas mãos do talentosíssimo Ale Vigil.
    Rubi profundo com halo violáceo tingindo a taça. Aromas de baunilha, cacau e frutas vermelhas maduras. No palato é intenso, taninos domados, boa acidez, notas de morango, framboesa, baunilha e alguns herbáceos. Vinhaço!

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  • Opened in the bottle 5 hours. Texturally silky/full bodied with the full palate hiding behind a wall of acidity and tannic grip. Still some charred oak, black pepper, stewed black fruit, and expected green notes come through. Mouth drying tannins still rip on the finish the second day. Definitely big new world with some added rustic charm. Needs time to evolve as mellow.

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  • Last wine on the Southern Hemisphere wines table at the Third Annual Oakton Wine Shop Bucket List Tasting. Deep and dark ruby red in appearance. A touch green on the nose with layers of mushrooms, vegetal characteristics, floral and blue fruits bring up the rear. Medium tannins (6.5/10) and medium plus bodied. Herbal and spices on the attack of the palate before some cassis and savory notes show through. Long finish. Drink till 2027. (91+)

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  • Dried strawberries, fresh earth, dried herbs, M+ tannins. Smooth finish

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