Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017 - 103

The subtle redwood scent seems to catch the
vineyard's hillside environs. It's a beautiful,
zesty California original. Pour it blind for
Europhile friends who claim to dislike zin,
and watch their faces light up. (W&S 2/17;
200 cases)

bringing to mind obsidian as the grape-skin
tannins add a glint of tension to the finish.
Scents of roses and bay laurel provide detail
within the wine's depths. This has decades of
development ahead. (W&S 2/17; 375 cases)

A RGE N T I N A
BEST MALBEC
120397

95 | Achaval Ferrer

448254

94 | Dry Creek Vineyard

$32

2014 Dry Creek Valley Old Vine Zinfandel ^ Tim Bell made this 2014 primarily from
four centenarian vineyards, including Beeson Ranch, a relatively cool east-facing site
planted against Dry Creek's western hills.
This seems to draw quite a bit of its character from the petite sirah component of the
blend, which mostly comes from Beeson's
old vines-the oldest date to the 1880s. The
result is a zin with a tooth-staining purple
color, the structure firm and tannic. It's cool
rather than jammy, maybe because the dry,
early vintage was untouched by any blistering heat waves, maybe because the old dryfarmed vines tempered the effects of the
drought. The intense blue fruit-wild blueberry amplified by juniper and cassis-seems
to want to explode into sunny juiciness, yet
feels pulled back by the soil-scented cool of
the tannins. This feels fresh, intense and balanced to age-cellar a case to watch it evolve
over the next two decades. (W&S 6/17; 2,805
cases)
447358

94 | Robert Craig

$55

2014 Howell Mountain Napa Valley Black
Sears Vineyard Zinfandel ^ Joyce Black and
Jerre Sears moved to Howell Mountain in
1979, settling at a ranch on a northeast-facing ridge where zinfandel had been planted
in 1975. Robert Craig established a neighboring winery on the ridge in 1998, where Elton
Slone and his team began making a Black
Sears Zinfandel in 2006. Presented with the
dense extract and rich new oak to parallel
the ambitions of a Napa Valley cabernet, this
succeeds in a grand and powerful style. The
fruit is expansive enough that it subsumes
the oak influence into its volcanic minerality,

$150

2014 Mendoza Finca Altamira Malbec ^
Achaval Ferrer is one of the pioneering wineries for single-vineyard malbec in Argentina. In 1999, the team debuted with this red
from a vineyard planted in 1925, southwest
of the Tunuyán River, at an elevation of 3,444
feet. In 2014, the harvest was cool and complicated by rain, yet the result counts among
the best from Altamira. It's austere in aroma,
with notes of herbal red fruit, but rich and
juicy on the palate, the ripe cherry flavors
delineated by a structure of powerful tannins
and sharp acidity. Give this at least five years
in the cellar, when it should begin to show its
complexity; it's a wine that traditionally ages
very well. (W&S 6/17) § Stoli Group USA, NY

119626

95 | Teho

$79

2014 Mendoza Tomal Vineyard Malbec ^
Viticulturist Alejandro Sejanovich, who partnered with Jeff Mausbach to create this winery in 2009, sources this red from a vineyard
in La Consulta that was planted in the 1940s.
While the wine is labeled "malbec," Sejanovich says it's "uva francesa" (French grape),
using an old local term for a traditional field
blend of malbec mixed with cabernet franc,
carignan and, occasionally, semillon. Grown
at 4,000 feet in altitude, it's a radiant, brilliant red, with hints of spices, flowers, succulent red cherries and an opulent acidity that
brings all the fruit up front. You may want to
save this for a decade. (W&S 2/17) § Vino del
Sol, Corralitos, CA

silveradovineyards.com

http://www.silveradovineyards.com https://store.drycreekvineyard.com/2014_Old_Vine_Zinfandel?pageID=2F32D491-CC44-384F-ACCC-AB9805069529&sortBy=DisplayOrder&maxRows=10& http://www.vinodelsol.com/thewineries/tehozaha.html

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017