2013 Finca Mirador Malbec
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Tasting notes
800-1,000 cases on average for the three single-vineyard wines. 17,000 bottles for this wine in this vintage. This is from Medrano – not typically known for high-level wine. 80-year-old vines, VSP. One metre of sandy topsoil over clay. This vintage was made under the old winemaking regime, with Roberto Cipresso and Santiago Achával. 15 months in French oak. pH 3.6, TA 6.48 g/l. Deep cherry red. Smoky and spicy notes over the ripe but fresh dark fruit and some red fruit to lift it. Dark fruited and pure but with plenty of ripe fruit sweetness. Rich and rounded in the mouth, generous and full bodied. Long, becoming more savoury with air, almost beefy. (JH)
Critic scores
Average Score
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Bright, saturated ruby. Cassis, licorice, bitter chocolate, minerals and a whiff of smoked meat on the nose. Richer and sweeter than the Bella Vista bottling, but with pungent minerality, showing slightly riper acidity and a suggestion of dark chocolate to mellow out its penetrating flavors of blackberry and cassis. This wine, too, is utterly primary and backward but it's balanced from the start. A wine of outstanding density and energy; very few Argentine Malbecs can approach this one for inner-mouth tension. Finishes with noble tannins and subtle, slow-building length. Wonderfully fine-grained, seamless wine with terrific floral lift. Really spreads out to saturate the palate on the back end without leaving any impression of weight. An incredible vintage for this wine.
Starting with the single-vineyards wines, the 2013 Malbec Finca Mirador comes from a plot of Malbec in Medrano planted with old vines, is the warmest of them all, but don't look for any signs of heat or excess ripeness here as the nose is fresh, vibrant and elegant, and without losing its personality it seems to be taken to a higher stage. There is no trace of oak here, despite the fact that they are now using at least a half of smaller, 160-liter barrels for the aging of their top wines. The palate delivers all the nose has promised, plus a fine thread and a thin line of acidity making it remarkably fresh. 2013 seems to be the best vintage yet. Bravo! There is no 2012 of Finca Mirador, because the canopy of the vines was destroyed by hail, and the vines could not ripen the grapes without leaves, so they were forced to cut all the unripe bunches and drop them. I wonder if this has something to do with the exceptional performance of Mirador in 2013. 12,000 bottles produced.
Starting with the single-vineyards wines, the 2013 Malbec Finca Mirador comes from a plot of Malbec in Medrano planted with old vines, is the warmest of them all, but don't look for any signs of heat or excess ripeness here as the nose is fresh, vibrant and elegant, and without losing its personality it seems to be taken to a higher stage. There is no trace of oak here, despite the fact that they are now using at least a half of smaller, 160-liter barrels for the aging of their top wines. The palate delivers all the nose has promised, plus a fine thread and a thin line of acidity making it remarkably fresh. 2013 seems to be the best vintage yet. Bravo! There is no 2012 of Finca Mirador, because the canopy of the vines was destroyed by hail, and the vines could not ripen the grapes without leaves, so they were forced to cut all the unripe bunches and drop them. I wonder if this has something to do with the exceptional performance of Mirador in 2013. 12,000 bottles produced. Aug 2015, www.robertparker.com