TRAPICHE | Oak Cask | Malbec | 2016
malbec
We will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss our reviews. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations.
Today we are going to review another single varietal malbec wine, that has been a true revelation – Oak Cask Malbec 2016 by Trapiche. Famous for its plump, dark fruit flavors and smoky finish, malbec wines have been adored for centuries for their elegance and finesse. Malbec typically produces wines that are deep in color, with full-body and high tannins – wines that usually responds well to oak ageing and are a great alternative to the higher priced cabernet sauvignon or merlot wines. The grape itself originates in the famous Cahors region of southern France, however Argentina proved that there’s more to malbec variety than just value, as today, malbec is Argentina’s signature grape and the best examples from Mendoza region can offer unmatched complexity and elegance. This particular wine is part of the Oak Cask line, aged for 9 months in new and old oak barrels. That said, let’s skip the theory part and move on, straight to the tasting phase!
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:
Visual
Pale but noble garnet color, with hazy purple shades towards the rim of the glass.
Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with red, blue and black fruit flavours: ripe red plum, ripe sour cherry, blackberry, blueberry, black cherry, ripe blue plum, blackcurrant, ripe redcurrant, black raspberry, black plum, candied sour cherry, ripe red mulberry and cherry tree wood. An instant later the nose is filled with elegant notes of roasted oakwood, red pepper, nutmeg, cloves, smoked plum, sweet tobacco and some subtle hints of black soil dust.
Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and fine tannins. It feels elegant, fruit-forward and expressive, with a fine-tannic grip on the mouthfeel and a velvety, medium body. This is a quite noble, complex and well structured malbec wine, that tastes crisp and seedy, with a very harmonious palate and well integrated alcohol and acidity. Overall, the wine has a good balance between primary fruit aromas and oak flavours, as this is definitely one of the finest malbec wines that we’ve tasted so far.
Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish and an elegant, fruity-velvety aftertaste.
___________________________________________________________________________
This is definitely an exceptional wine of Argentina and, with a total of 92.7 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.
Conclusion: this is a very fine malbec wine – fruity, elegant and expressive – a wine that is right there, at the summit of its prime form – this is one of the best malbec wines that we’ve reviewed so far. It can definitely age for another 2 or 3 years in the bottle, but we would suggest to drink it now, as it is of paramount importance to understand a wine’s limits: there are wines that might gain some much desired finesse with age while losing most of the flamboyance, yet there are also wines that are elegant enough in their yearly stages and age will take its toll on them. It is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. That said, we would recommend to pair this wine with soft-textured meaty dishes, especially those that are rich in natural umami flavours, like for example some tournedos rossini or a pan-seared filet mignon steak, so that all that elegance in the wine will be perfectly complemented by the delicateness of the dish. Enjoy!
WineStatistics tasting results:
TRAPICHE
Oak Cask | Malbec | 2016
grape: | malbec |
overall rating: | 92.7 |
maturity: in its prime
conclusion: excellent | (a must try)
___________________________________________________________________________
© 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. Just remember that there are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.
WineStatistics 