BODEGA ALEANNA | El Enemigo | Malbec | 2018
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 a single varietal malbec wine from the famous Mendoza region of Argentina – El Enemigo Malbec 2018 by Bodega Aleanna. Known for its plump, dark fruit flavors and smoky finish, malbec wines have been adored for centuries, especially by the royal houses of England and Russia. With elegant notes of plum, tobacco and hints of violets, malbec offers a great alternative to its higher priced siblings: merlot, cabernet sauvignon or syrah. Malbec originates in the famous Cahors region of France, however Argentina proved that there’s more to malbec than just value, as it can offer an unmatched complexity and elegance if produced in an expressive new-world style, with a nuanced fruity character. El Enemigo is a thrilling wine project founded by the chief winemaker of Catena Zapata – Alejandro Vigil and Adrianna Catena. This delicious malbec is produced at Piedemonte al Sur in the Luján de Cuyo sub-region of Mendoza, which lies at the foothills of the Andes Mountains. The grapes for this particular wine are sourced from high altitude vineyards, planted at up to 1478 meters above sea level. These unique conditions help produce a remarkably intense, powerful wine with perfect poise and balance thanks to the cool summer nights and long ripening season. The wine itself is aged for 15 months in 100-year old french oak founders. That said and without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results.
_________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
colour: medium-deep purple color
clarity: hazy indigo shades on the rim

//Olfactory
intensity: powerful & savory
fruit profile: red fruits | black fruits | blue fruits
__red fruits: sour cherry | red plum | red currant
__black fruits: black cherry | black plum | brumble
__blue fruits: blueberry | blue plum | honeyberry
fruit character: ripe

//Flavor
non fruit: spice | oak | savory | earthy | other
__spice: peppercorn | cloves | allspice | anise
__oak: sun-dried oakwood | oaktree bark
__savory: iron | veal | game | capocollo | leather
__earthy: black soil dust | beetroot | sweet potato | forest floor
__other: hints of violets
primary layer: fruity–savory

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: medium+
alcohol: medium+
tannin: medium+
__grip: fine
balance: good
__dominant: none
body: supple & lean | medium body

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits & blue fruits
fruit character: ripe
non fruit: savory & earthy
finish: medium
aftertaste: appealingly crisp

//Scoring
BODEGA ALEANNA | El Enemigo | Malbec | 2018
variety: malbec
country: Argentina
region: Luján de Cuyo | Mendoza
rating: 93.1

//Conclusion
maturity: developing | age for 2 or 3 more years
verdict: great | a must try wine
_________________________________________________________________________
This is definitely a great wine of Argentina and, with a total of 93.1 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.

Verdict: this is a very fine and delicate wine indeed: plump, savory and rustic – a wine that is still developing, therefore we would recommend to give it another 2 or 3 years of bottle ageing in order to allow it to develop further complexity. The wine feels lean, supple and voluptuous, with a nuanced, meaty-leathery accent on the nose, which delivers ripe red and blue fruits in the foreground, supported by a quite delicate leathery-earthy background and a layer of spice in between the two. On the palate the wine displays crisp acidity, fine-grained tannins and just a touch of alcoholic warmth showing through on the mouthfeel. All in all, this is a quite plush and extremely appealing malbec wine that feels harmonious, balanced and well structured, with well preserved varietal characteristics and a nuanced, terroir-driven and rustic delicacy. This is definitely a wine that has both, its own distinctive personality and the footprint of the Mendoza terroir. Judging by the wine’s structure, our recommendation is to drink it sooner rather than later, as we firmly believe that it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. Enjoy!

_________________________________________________________________________
© 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.