2019 Malbec

The Peacemaker! This is the Malbec that brings all kinds of different Malbec fans together. No matter the style you prefer, we can all agree on this big expression of rounded fruit and spice.

2019 Obelisco Estate Malbec

Blend: 100% Malbec

AVA: Red Mountain

Vineyards: 100% Obelisco Estate

Bottling: 509 cases 750ml 

Alcohol: 15.7% vol.

Barrels: 35% new oak, 95% French, 5% Hungarian

Tasting Notes: Very dark magenta-purple color. Just like the 2018, the nose leads with spice, raspberry, vanilla, and cranberry. On the palate, the brighter fruits and spice lead things off. As the flavors roll toward the mid and back palate, the fruit flavors of tart cherry, blackberries mix in and the vanilla becomes more predominant. The finish blends fruit, vanilla and cola with a little bit of clove spice.

Cellaring: This wine is enjoyable now and will surely get more silky with age. This is a Malbec that has seen a long skin time, so expect a good 10-15 year range. It is also 100% Red Mountain, which is known for its longer-aged wines.

Production: The fruit for this wine comes from the Red Mountain Vineyard of Obelisco. The densely planted vineyard produces intense flavors especially with the extended fermentation and skin time that we at Obelisco use.  The natural tannin of these mountain vines holds onto the fruit flavors for a long time.

Harvest notes: 2019 was another hot year in the vineyard, but the early set of the vines led to an easy and good yield.  Rather than worrying about yield like some years, we trimmed back some of the fruit on the vineyard to make sure concentrations were good. The sugars and flavors seemed to develop at an even rate making the picking decisions easier for our team.  There was enough coolness in the evenings of the Fall to give us some extra hang time without the chemistry changing too much.  We were also able to avoid some of the smoke that some got from the wildfires that had been so rampant that time of the year.