Wine & Spirits

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate The 2015 Altura Máxima Malbec is all black olives, decayed violets and malted cereals, a wild and unusual wine with high ripeness but a medium-bodied palate with fine-grained tannins. It is produced with grapes from their seven-year-old vineyard at 3,100 meters in altitude, the highest vineyard in the world producing commercial wine. The grapes were harvested fully ripe at the end of April, which is the equivalent to the end of October in the northern hemisphere. Here, latitude compensates for the altitude, and the grapes manage to ripen fully with strong exposure to sunlight. It matured in fourth use French barriques for 24 months. 6,900 bottles were filled in December 2017.

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Winemaker Notes The 2016 Crown Point Cabernet Sauvignon is a full, rich, and beautiful wine that beckons both the nose and palate with a sense of textural generosity and aromatic complexity. Blue and black fruits are beautifully woven through its powerful core of minerality, accented by subtle notes of cocoa & toasted spices. This wine possesses an energy and freshness that indicates a long life ahead of it. Mother Nature graced the estate with a near-perfect growing season in 2016. Conditions in the vineyard were optimal for producing evenly ripe, concentrated fruit, which displayed rich, developed tannins right off of the vine. In keeping with tradition, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from multiple blocks on the estate, from a range of clones that all contribute different expressions of the variety to the wine. Small quantities of the other four noble Bordelaise varieties were added to the final blend for polish and complexity. All of the blocks were harvested & fermented separately, and the individual components were blended after 12 months of élevage in barrel. Total time in 225 liter French oak barrels (70% new) was 26 months. Blend: 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 1% Malbec

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Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate 31st Jan 2019 "Aged 18 months in 53% new French oak, the deep garnet-purple colored 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Mercury Head delivers expressive notes of blackcurrant pastilles, preserved plums and chocolate-covered cherries with hints of eucalyptus, cigar box and fragrant earth. Full-bodied with a firm frame of ripe, grainy tannins and a refreshing line, it has a fantastic core of expressive fruit, finishing long and minty. 6,000 cases produced." (95 pts.) About the Label As a child, the winemaker loved and collected the Liberty dime - nicknamed the "Mercury Head" - which now fittingly graces his flagship wine's bottle.

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Winemaker Notes Aromatics with gravity, the wine pulls you in with notes of blueberry, black fig, bloodied strawberry and hints of musk and rhubarb. Bold on the entry, the palate exudes rich notes of dark plum and ripe framboise with a slightly chalky texture. The wine transitions effortlessly to a finish of black cherry, sweet licorice, and some quick-drying tannins. About the Label The label was inspired by a collage displayed in the living room of a designer in Milan. The winemaker spent years collecting the imagery and individually piecing the snips together. Nearly four years later, his original work of art was finally completed.

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Winemaker Notes Heady aromas of brambly raspberry, black fig, and peppercorn dominate; time in glass exposes more—dark chocolate, fennel, and High Sierra forest floor. The palate is lush and opulent with blackberries, dark plums, and currants. More flavors add to the quality of the blend—a visceral minerality and fresh Herbs de Provence. Fully integrated with puckering tannins, the wine bows out with finesse. 53% Zinfandel, 23% Syrah, 20% Petite Sirah, 4% Grenache

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Winemaker Notes This wine exudes power and elegance. Dense and focused with primary, bright, youthful, fresh characters. Plenty of ripe blue and red fruit accompanied by notes of mocha, carob, butterscotch, and toast. Hints of dried herb and rose petal. Long, clean, and fresh, its strong acid backbone is a hallmark of what will be another long-lived, collectible wine. Discernable tannins that are youthful yet lengthy complement the underlying intense fruit. Great texture! All the promise you like to find in a young wine. Blend: 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot  

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Napa, CA- Dark and brooding notes of blackberry and cherry are interwoven with flavors of cracked black pepper, cedar, and spice. The generous finish has plenty of smooth tannins which provide a generous, mouth-coating texture.  

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This wine exhibits a glass-coating opaque purple color. It has an expressive nose of pain grille, briar, minerality and blueberry and blackberry overtones. This plush, opulent wine has great density, savory avors and a very lengthy nish that gets better with age.  

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TYPE: This grape produces a dark red wine with plenty of tannins. It is one of the six grapes allowed for blending red Bordeaux wines. Malbec is also the flagship variety of Argentina. The grape needs a lot of sun and heat to mature. It adds complexity and intensity to blends. PRODUCER: Devil Proof Vineyards in Sonoma County is only a few years old, but it’s already earning buzz from reviewers. Winemaker Jesse Katz launched Devil Proof in 2012 and his debut wine, a 2012 Malbec made from Alexander Valley grapes, sold out quickly through a mailing list. Robert M. Parker Jr. gave the wine 94 pts and wrote that “this may be the finest Malbec I have ever tasted from California...” Wine Enthusiast also gave the 2012 94 pts, noting that Katz “pulled out all the stops to craft this small-production Malbec, proving that the right fruit in the right hand can yield crazy-good results.” Katz’s fruit comes from the Farrow Ranch, where 75 acres of vineyards are planted to Malbec for Devil Proof Vineyards. Katz toured some of the world’s leading wine producers as a child and adolescent, traveling with his father Andy Katz, a photographer known for vineyard photography. Jesse earned a degree in enology in California then worked for wine producers in Argentina and California, including a stint at Screaming Eagle, before starting his own venture. Katz in 2013 was lauded by Wine Enthusiast as one of 40 young tastemakers under 40 to watch. The photo on the labels is by Andy Katz and the name comes from a Cuban saying, which is that if you live well and drink well, the devil can’t get you.  

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The highly anticipated 2016 Alión spent 12 months in oak barrels, 80% of them new and built mainly with French oak but with some 5% American oak, and some 10% of the volume matured in 15,000-liter concrete vats. It hits the scale at 15% alcohol and has moderate acidity, showing ripe black fruit and a creamy texture. 2016 has to be one of the freshest and most elegant vintages of Alión, a year with depth, freshness and terrific balance. Same as they do in Pintia, they are finding ways to lower the impact of the oak in the wine; here, they used concrete, and the wine shows more primary and floral aromas and is nicely textured and with fine tannins. 258,458 bottles, 7,017 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2018.   

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Tiny production cult Burgundy from Henri-Frédéric Roch, co-owner of Domaine de la Romanee- Conti. Production was miniscule this year due to frosts, but the grapes are high quality and the wines are produced organically with no additives, pumping over or filtration. Exudes pure cranberry, blackberry, and herbs with saline edginess, and a long finish.   

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100 Points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. "Composed of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, the deep purple-black colored 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon has a beautiful nose of dried roses, lavender and Chinese five spice over a core of warm blackcurrants, kirsch and wild blueberries, plus wafts of fallen leaves and dusty earth. The medium to full-bodied palate features the most amazing intensity of perfumed red, black and blue fruit flavors supported by exquisitely fine-grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epic length and depth. Truly stunning."  

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