2013 Domaine Vistalba Vinalba Cuvee Couture Malbec-Touriga Nacional Rese

Community Tasting Notes (5) Avg Score: 91.8 points

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  4/28/2024 - anjtutt Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Deep brick red. Mulberry fruit but beginning to fade. Tannins balanced and long finish. Drink up

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  4/4/2021 - johnrm Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Still drinking beautifully - it retains the rich, sweet fruit plus the complexity, spice and balanced long palate with the best features of both grapes. Superb with barbecued lamb. This wine has benefitted tremendously from cellaring. Perhaps fading very very slightly after 8 years but it never disappoints.

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  10/16/2020 - johnrm Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Opened 2h+ before tasting. After a (very short-lived) whiff of ‘farmyard’ when first uncorked, the nose took some time to open for me but my wife got blackcurrant early on and didn’t get the ‘farm’.
  Once again, we got damson and plum fruit on the palate but the dark cherry seemed to emerge sooner than before. Soft tannins, spice and more dark cherry fruit developed but the wine seemed less ‘sweet’ and more elegant than before. I got chocolate on the end palate for the first time but it was more like fruit-infused chocolate than the dusty, bitter chocolate shown on some wines.
  Excellent with food. I thought earlier that ‘I think this will not improve further but is very good now’. However, after another couple of hours, I retract this. This was better and better after 4+ hours. Richer, full of dark cherry fruit, complex, long. As I said earlier, a real find. If you are lucky enough to have any, do give it a few hours to open.

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  1/19/2019 - johnrm Likes this wine: 93 Points

  This was (with time and hindsight) a real find. Opened 4h before tasting. As before, the nose took some time to open. Spice and damson fruit at first.
  Good damson and plum fruit on the palate early with soft integrated tannins. As it opened, spice and cherry fruit developed - covering the range from sweet black cherries via Maraschino to cherry stones and skins. My wife got a slightly 'woody' character which chimes with my earlier comments on 'cedar pencils'. This wine gets better and better.
  Excellent with food (rare steak) and even better later. Superb wine. The bottle was empty much too soon.

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  1/25/2018 - johnrm Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Opened 4h before tasting. The nose took some time to open. Spice and damson fruit. Still a deep red with perhaps a little purple at the edge.
  Good damson and plum fruit in the palate with soft leathery tannins. Good acidity and balance. Some marzipan and 'Christmas cake' on the end palate and the cedar pencil character persists on the long finish.
  Excellent with food (rare steak) and even better later. (I have added a couple of points because it really showed its true quality with time and with food). It still benefits from time after opening. If you still have some of this vintage don't rush to open it and be prepared to give it lots of time after you pop the cork. Very attractive, unusual wine. I begin to see why Decanter awarded it 95 points a couple of years ago.
  I have moved this note from another 'Malbec/Touriga Nacional Reserva' entry because this really has the 'Cuvee Couture' designation. Superb wine.

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