Wine Reviews

Rich but fresh blackberries with dark chocolate, sandalwood with violet and graphite. Just a hint of prune that won’t bother. Full-bodied, ripe and juicy on the palate with firm, fine-grained tannins rounding out the fleshy black fruit. Juicy and pretty long.

The 2019 Malbec Single Vineyard Serenade hails from a vineyard planted on clay and lime soils in 1935 in Agrelo. Fermented with skins. Salmon pink in the glass. It has a Semillón-like nose. In the mouth, it has a good, fatty body and texture with a gentle, fruity white wine flavor and malic acidity.

The Agrelo single-vineyard 2018 Malbec Serenade is from vines planted in 1935. It feels quite classical—ripe at 15% alcohol and generously oaked after maturing in 225- and 600-liter French barriques, 66% of them new, for one year. They are moving to larger barrels and reducing the new oak, just to support the structure. This wine (and the rest of the single-vineyard reds) is not oaky at all; this is floral and aromatic, typical Agrelo. This is very open and balanced, with a round palate and round tannins. The deep gravels need old vines to deliver this quality. This has to be the finest Serenade to date.

A ripe, spicy nose with plenty of blackberries, graphite, violets and ink. Some sweet spices and walnut, too. Juicy and tight on the palate with dense and fine-grained tannins that extend to a long, spicy finish.

This is perfumed with spicy violet and truffle notes, which fold over on the palate and join juicy plum and black currant accents. Features a refined frame that turns more muscular on the finish, which boasts spiced vanilla bean. Drink now through 2030. 1,064 cases made, 142 cases imported.