Winery: Susana Balbo Wines

Vintage: 2018

Wine Name/Vineyard: Crios

Wine Category: Malbec

Grape blend: 100% Malbec

Bottle size: 750 ml

Region: Valley de Uco – Mendoza

State or country: Argentina

Price: $13.99

ABV: 13.9%

Cases produced: N/A

The Barrel Cellar Score:  89 points

Review date: December 18, 2019

About the Winemaker:  Winemaker Susana Balboa and her children craft wine together at Susana Balboa winery which she founded in the Andean mountains.  Her wines are gaining critical acclaim and the value of the bottles simply can’t be beat.

The grapes for this Malbec were grown at an elevation of 3700 ft.  The source vineyards are some of the highest elevation Vineyards in the Andean mountain range.

Color:  Bright yet deep Purple, almost florescent

Nose:  Spring flowers, honey suckle, vanilla, strawberry.

Taste: Freshly picked and barely ripened cherry and black pepper. Finish: Oak.

Assessment: Everything about this wine is bright.  The color, the nose, the taste, even the acidity is bright.  I’m not sure I’ve ever had anything quite like it.  If this bottle of wine told a story, the setting would be a warm and sunny spring day.  I don’t mean to say that this is a wine to be enjoyed in warm weather, necessarily, just that it is spring in a bottle.  As expected from a Malbec, it’s spicy and has a full body.  The wine maker has balanced the acidity nicely with oak tannins, and this is an overall nice wine.  I’d like to note that this wine received some high ratings (91, 92) from other well-known wine reviewing publications.

Drink this wine now, but it does need to be decanted.

“Crios” is a very good wine and a fantastic value.  89 points.

Pairing recommendation:  Ribeye, high quality Mozzarella and fresh tomato slices.