Zuccardi Finca Los Membrillos Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 (750ML)

96 JS / 94 WA

An impressive cabernet sauvignon with black currants, graphite and spearmint. Full body, firm and silky tannins and a serious finish. Extremely polished and structured. Selection of the best cabernet from this farm. 350 cases made. Drink in 2018. James Suckling

A wine that is stands apart from the single vineyard bottling, the 2013 Finca Los Membrillos is sourced from a vineyard planted with Cabernet Sauvignon. There are quince trees in the estate and they give the name to the wine (membrillo is the Spanish word for quince). This is a plot bordering Altamira that was planted with Cabernet when they bought it. They have now also planted Malbec and Cabernet Franc, so this wine will change in the future. They won't bottle the 2014 and 2015 vintages that were not good years for Cabernet in Mendoza. It's not easy to detect the grape here anyway. I see more similarities with the Canal Uco bottling to which Sebastian Zuccardi responded that the soils are very similar. The wine has very good freshness with fine tannins coating a fine thread of lively acidity. They have four different types of soils here and they used three for this wine. When the soils are very shallow the Cabernet has a tendency to dry out and the tannins can feel a bit harsh, so they need to find good balance using deeper soils to obtain these buttery tannins with the variety. The oak is a lot more noticeable since they use more new oak with the Cabernet than with Malbec. It has classic aromas of the oak-aged Cabernet, quite different from the Malbecs, mint, damsons, blackberries, something earthy, graphite even, cigar box and spices, and with the telltale tannins of the variety where the earthiness is more pronounced. This will be better with a little bit of time in bottle. I'm curious to see what this will be with Malbec and Cabernet Franc, even though this one is not about the variety at all... 2,500 bottles produced. Luis Gutierrez – The Wine Advocate