Cheval des Andes - Red Blend 2016 (1.5L)
Price: $219.00
| Producer | Cheval des Andes |
| Country | Argentina |
| Region | Mendoza |
| Varietal | Red Blend |
| Vintage | 2016 |
| Sku | 06591 |
Cheval des Andes Description
The wine of Cheval des Andes combines the vibrant and intense expression of Argentinian Malbec with the rigour, elegance and savoir-faire of a great Bordeaux. It is a unique blend of Malbec grapes and Bordeaux varietals – an ensemble with the exuberance of Malbec balanced by the temperance of Cabernet Sauvignon, completed with hints of Petit Verdot.
The vision of Cheval des Andes is to bring Château Cheval Blanc’s winemaking philosophy – which focusses on cellaring potential and elegance – to Argentina. Cheval des Andes makes wines that age gracefully and “travel through the decades,” according to Pierre Lurton, President of Château Cheval Blanc and Cheval des Andes.
These wines are elegant, meaning they are the most refined expression of the terroir of Mendoza. On the nose, they are complex rather than intense and on the palate, they are balanced rather than powerful.
Exceptional is the word we can use to describe the 2016 harvest. The new vintage was cropped from a completely unusual year due to unstable temperatures – cooler than the average and with an exceptional amount of rain marked by El Niño, a cyclical phenomenon caused by the warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This resulted in heavy rainfall between October and December.
Thanks to the spring rainfall during budburst and veraison, the phenological cycle was delayed by 20 days. On one hand , due to higher temperatures followed by a dry summer, the vines produced lower yields than usual. While on the other hand they produced small but rich and concentrated berries.
Following a careful selection process, the vintage was vinified in small stainless-steel vats (80hl). The 2016 vintage was aged for 14 months in oak; 2/3 in 225 litre barriques and 1/3 in larger 400 litre barrels.
70% of the wine was aged in new oak and 30% in 1-year-old barrels. All of the barrels were made from oak from Central France. The barrels used to age this vintage of Cheval des Andes were made by world-class French coopers.
In the 2016 vintage, 100% of the grapes came from the top ‘terroirs’ of Las Compuertas and La Consulta. The resulting wines have good ageing potential and are notable by their precision, balance and freshness.
- BLEND: Malbec (58%), Cabernet Sauvignon (37%) , Petit Verdot (5%).
- COLOUR: Intense shiny red with purple hints
- AROMAS: Very intense aromatic expression. The bouquet of aromas of red fruit (cherry, wild strawberries) and spices is intensified by the freshness and complexity of the wine.
- PALATE: On the palate, the balance of this wine is predominant. A supple and fresh attack add a lovely liveliness. Soft, precise tannins bring an attractive structure with an elegant finish.
James Suckling: 99 Points
Super refined and beautiful with flowers, spices, dried fruit and hints of stones. Medium to full body with very fine tannins and a gorgeous finish. Shows great finesse and depth. Savory character, as always, but in check. If you can wait, drink in 2022.
Wine Advocate: 97 Points
I also tasted the 2015 and 2016 next to the newly released 2017 to give it some context and to see the evolution and changes implemented in the last few years. The 2016 Cheval des Andes is probably the freshest wine produced to date and the first vintage when they used 100% own grapes. Of the trio of vintages tasted together—2015, 2016 and 2017—this is the one with less alcohol and more freshness, and it remains a more austere expression, reflecting a cooler and wetter year that resulted in a less exuberant wine, a benchmark for freshness. I'm looking forward to 2018 to see where they go in the next cool vintage after this 2016... They produced 60,000 bottles and 2,400 magnums. It was bottled in December 2017.
Vinous Media: 95 Points
Bright, dark red-ruby. Wild, musky scents and flavors of black raspberry, black pepper, olive tapenade, licorice and rocky salinity. Plush, savory and seamless; a mouthcoating Malbec-based blend with superb depth and palate presence. As concentrated as this wine is, it's medium-bodied in the style of this cooler year but also remarkably nuanced and harmonious from the start, communicating an impression of restrained sweetness. Finishes extremely long and edge-free, with noble tannins and palate-saturating breadth. Incidentally, with this 2016, Cheval des Andes is now made entirely with estate fruit, from their properties in La Compuertas and Altamira. (aged in 70% new oak)
-- Stephen Tanzer
