2017 As Bravas El Enemigo

Succulent and extreme, showing red fruit and intriguing aromas. Earthy and mineral with a chalkiness that spreads across the palate. This is bright, delineated and saline, the tight blue fruit adding focus. There's a unique, almost effervescent thread of fruit and texture throughout. 100% whole-cluster fermented. 7% semillon. Really absorbing. As they say in Madeira, a wine of reflection. Drink now or hold.

Grown at high altitude in the cool-climate region, the 2017 Malbec As Bravas Gualtallary is made similarly to its cousin from El Cepillo, aged 64 months in foudre for gradual oxidation. Fermented 50% whole-cluster, it's salty, lengthy, and mineral-driven, like an iron fist in its grasp of tannin and intensity, powerful yet possessed of a graceful structure. Continue aging 15-18 years.

This is the second vintage of the new top of the range produced with pure Malbec from a very small plot in the Cordón El Cepillo with very special soils. The 2017 As Bravas Malbec was cropped from a very challenging vintage with frost and a warm end of the season. It fermented with full clusters in concrete and then matured in oak foudre for 64 months—a very long élevage that stabilizes the wine. It has a moderate 13.2% alcohol through an early harvest, and there is a sense of ripeness, of raw fruit, quite primary and undeveloped, like the wine had been frozen in time; it develops some notes of graphite with time in the glass and an acute floral note with some more time. A triumph over the adverse conditions of the year.