Olfactory allusions...Black currant, brown sugar, Concord grape juice
The taste buds are a-tingling…I have talked up the Anakena line of wines for quite some time now, with the only real disappointment being their Single Vineyard Malbec. So when I saw this on the shelves of my local Total Wine & More, I just had to try it out. I had hopes that I would find a decent Malbec from Chile; sadly that’s not the case here. While this wine does better than the Single Vineyard Malbec, it still falls short of my expectations for an Ona labeled wine. The attack is marked with blackberry, black currant and plum; other than those flavors there doesn’t seem to be any other layers which threw me for a loop to say the least. The attack to mid-palate transition is very smooth; the mid-palate showing shy tannins and over-friendly alcohol heat. The heat lingers into the medium-to-long finish; mingling with darker flavors of molasses, tobacco, black tea leaves and sugared black plums. There is a lingering aftertaste of black plum and molasses, that sours just a tad right before it fades. All of this after the wine had been open for a day. I did sample a glass fifteen minutes after I popped the cork; much like the Single Vineyard Malbec this wine tastes better right after opening than it does after breathing in some air. I don’t know if the terrior in Chile doesn’t favor the Malbec grape or if my palate doesn’t enjoy just how much Chilean Malbec tends to mellow after breathing, but I didn’t enjoy this wine as much as I’d hoped to.
Overall, this rates a mere OK QPR. It tastes big and somewhat herbaceous if you sip it right after opening, but mellows into a rather boring, warm red wine if given the chance to touch some air. That’s not to say it tastes bad, merely that it makes this wine an over-expense when there are much cheaper Argentinean Malbecs that are more pleasing and complex than this wine. If you are taking a journey through the Anakena Wines as I am attempting to do you will still want to sample this wine, but I don’t think you will be keeping it around the house afterwards. This does not earn a recommendation from me unless you just want to try out a Chilean Malbec, all the rest of you purchase something else.
Anakena Wines
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