MONTE XANIC | Gran Ricardo | 2014
cabernet sauvignon | merlot | petit verdot

WineStatistics will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss one. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations. The logic is simple – the more we taste, the more we learn.

Tonight we are going to review a wine that is both, rare and unique, a wine we were so eager to try for such a long time, but we’ve been patiently waiting for the right time  – Gran Ricardo 2014 from Monte Xanic. It is a wine blend made of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit verdot grape varieties – a wine that has raised to legendary status in its homeland. This is the flagship wine of Monte Xanic winery, and is the first ultra-premium wine in México. It has been aged for 18 months in new french oak barrels and is produced from grapes that were harvested in the Baja California region. This wine is nothing less than a bottled art, made in a classic Bordeaux style but with a new world accent – where petit verdot is that one element that adds complexity to the final blend. But enough theory, let’s get straight to the tasting and find out how good this wine is!

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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Very deep and noble garnet color, with bright ruby hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with ripe red fruits: ripe sour cherry, blackcurrant, blackberry, ripe red mulberry, red plum, red currant, ripe figs and ripe pomegranate. An instant later the nose is filled with noble notes of cherry tree wood, nutmeg, roasted oakwood, smoke, tobacco, red pepper and some nuanced hints of allspice.

Gustatory
The wine is extra-dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and firm tannin. It feels bold, massive and expressive, with a nuanced new world accent. This is a quite extracted, tannic and complex wine, as it tastes firm, structured and seedy. The wine is amazingly well balanced and has a nice overall harmony between fruit and barrique.

Aftertaste
It has a long finish and an balanced, bitter-seedy aftertaste.
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This is definitely a great Wine of México and the overall rating says the same, with 92.7 points scored it is right there, among the best wines we’ve tasted so far. Please click on the chart icon on the left in order to get to the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines we’ve tasted to date.

Conclusion: this is a wine in its prime form – definitely ready to drink now – a wine that is about as bold as bold red wine gets – dense, rich, and enormously concentrated, mixing power with finesse! It has already developed into a genuine, fully mature wine blend, that offers an explosion of red fruits and tannins and in its current state, it can stand for another 2 to 3 years of bottle ageing. We would recommend to pair this wine with meaty dishes rich in umami flavours and smooth textures, like for example slow cooked beef cheeks in reductive red wine sauce or lomo al trapo salt-crusted beef tenderloin, so that all the fruity and tannic accents in the wine will be perfectly complemented by the sweetness and/or creaminess of the dish. Salud!

WineStatistics tasting results:

MONTE XANIC
Gran Ricardo | 2014

grape: | cabernet sauvignon | merlot | petit verdot |

region: México | Valle De Guadalupe

overall rating: | 92.7 |

conclusion: excellent | (a must try)

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(c) The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. There are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.