Score: 91/100
Familia Schroeder’s estate is located in San Patricio del Chañar Valley at 39º South Latitude, 53 km. far from Neuquen City, in plains of northern Patagonia Argentina. The climate in this extreme terroir is characterized by frequent winds, high day-night temperature variations and long summer days.
Learn more about this wine’s origin at Patagonia wine region, Argentina
The Saurus and Saurus Select range of wines were named as a tribute to the recent discovery of fossils from a new species of dinosaurs in Patagonia. The Titanosaurus, an enormous 80-ton dinosaur that weighed about 80 tons, the equivalent of 14 grown elephants, dwarfed even the Argentinosaurus, the previous largest known species of Dinosaur on Earth.
The Malbec grapes for this Saurus Select were hand-picked and selected through a vibrating table at entering the winery. After fermentation, 40% of the wine was aged for 12 months in oak wine barrels, while the remainding 60% were stored in stainless steel preserve its fresh fruity characters.
Tasting Notes
This Argentinian Malbec wine comes, as the typical imposes, in a pretty dark red color, nearly black to the core, bright red with purple hues to the rim. It’s looking youthful and vibrant despite its 4 years of age. Judging by its appearance, it could be a brand-new wine from last year.
The nose is intense and deep, dominated mainly by dark and ripe berry aromas, fresh berries it is, but on the verge of being jammy: ripe blackberry and dark cherry. Profound dark cocoa notes make it smell deep and intriguing, charming with hints of sweet vanilla and woodfire smoke. Add bursts of chili-like pepperiness, and you have an explosive and very fragrant aromatic profile.
Put the wine in your mouth, and the wine bursts in lively acidity sustaining explosive fresh red berry and juicy fresh purple plum flavors. It tastes like a raspberry coulis, accentuated and lifted by a wealth of black pepper, and of course without the sweetness of a coulis. It is dry but feels generous, helped by its round body, ripe dark berry flavors, and super-smooth tannins.
The texture is soft and generous, yet offering great fruity tension from its crisp acidity.
Long, juicy, fruity, spicy, and meaty finish. It is layered and complex in its aftertaste, delivering successively some raspberry jam, minty black pepper, clove and other sweet spices, cured meaty tones, and oaky caramel.
Overall
An excellent Malbec that delights thanks to the vibrancy of its fresh yet generous berry flavors deepened by an opulent and refined complexity.
Generous like a typical Argentina Malbec, yet in a crisper and more lively style than most, thanks to a crisp and refreshing acidity providing tension and a sense of minerality; probably the signature of the Southernmost latitude for wine-producing in Argentina in its region of origin: Patagonia.
Enjoy 🙂
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