Mission Codename Messi the Lion!
CONGRATULATIONS ARGENTINA, 2022 WORLD CUP FINALIST! 🏆⚽
Speaking of…
ALSO the winner of a Wine Intrigue Award by us for Varietal of the Year - how can we not pick the best example of Cabernet Franc?! The parent of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. The driver of Right Bank Bordeaux and the Loire Valley in France, with outstanding examples scattered throughout the New World too, like this one. When done right, there’s nothing like it!
“…at this quality level the price seems too good to be true…“wrote Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, if only they saw OUR price…
Let’s make it easy on you. TRY not to buy this. You can’t resist.
Exclusively BACK FOR WIA, while it lasts again. 98 points, was $125, now $75? Say no more!
Or say more? Well, we’re trying to digest the overindulgent days and nights here so allow us to at least exercise our fingers and type up all we know about this showstopper.
You must know who the Catenas are. Well, El Enemigo is them joining forces with one of the most gifted winemakers the Southern hemisphere has ever seen.
The project spun out of control when Wine Advocate awarded THIS WINE with 100 points: “The joint venture between Catena’s winemaker Alejandro Vigil and Dr. Catena’s younger daughter, Adrianna, has produced a perfect wine in 2013. They are without a doubt one of the leading names in the whole of Argentina” they wrote, making history. It has since been impossible to get, let alone see enough in the same place to make a day out of… until today!
How can it be best described? Let’s not reinvent the wheel and stick with a cliché. It’s the definition of an iron fist in a velvet glove. The kind of wine that you sniff and sip again and again in utter disbelief.
Let’s revert to the Wine Advocate one last time to emphasize how MONSTROUS an opportunity this is; “Alejandro Vigil continues producing amazing wines under the brand El Enemigo, including some of the best Cabernet Franc produced in Argentina. These wines seem to have created some kind of hype around the variety, but Vigil’s wines are not about the variety at all, they are about the very special places where the grapes are grown… at this quality level the price seems too good to be true.”
Last we saw this, the allocated stash vanished in a matter of hours, since then we’ve been begging for a last round, and guess what? December 13th is a LUCKY DAY - be nimble - don’t let that luck fly by!
98 Points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“Despite 2017 being a very warm and dry year, the single-vineyard wines show very clear characters of place, each showing the place quite transparently, which is not always easy in a warm year. Remarkable! The 2017 Gran Enemigo Gualtallary Single Vineyard didn’t show any heat or excess ripeness from a warm and dry year. On the contrary, it’s austere and has citrus acidity, with great freshness and minerality. The palate is super austere with vibrant acidity - by far the highest among the Gran Enemigo bottlings - and very fine, chalky tannins. This is remarkable, serious, balanced and fresh with a very, very long and salty finish. This fermented in barrels with 100% full clusters and indigenous yeasts and matured in centenary oak foudres for 15 months. Drink 2021-2030.”
What the Winery Says
2017 'Gran Enemigo' SV Gualtallary Cabernet Franc
- Winemaker
- Alejandro Vigil
- Varietals
- 85% Cabernet Franc, 15% Malbec
- Vintage
- 2017
- Alcohol
- 14%
- Appellation
- Gualtallary, Uco Valley, Mendoza
- Vineyard
- Aleanna Vineyard
- Elevation
- 4,800 feet
- Soils
- Deep-calcareous and rocky
- Density
- 2,500 vines/acre
- Total acidity
- 7.1 g/L
- pH
- 3.4
- Total SO2
- 90 mg/L
- Dry extract
- 32 g/L
- Residual sugar
- 1.78 g/L
- Aging
- 15 months
- Barrels
- Centenary oak foudres