2017 Indaco

The 2017 Indaco (Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot) is fabulous. Rich, ample and explosive, with tremendous depth, the 2017 saturates the palate with tons of intensity. Inky red/purplish fruit, blood orange, mint, licorice and spice flesh out effortlessly. The 2017 is a big wine, but it also has plenty of energy to keep things in check. Gorgeous.

Lots of delicious berry character with chewy, ripe-strawberry character. It’s medium-to full-bodied with round, ripe tannins that complement the fruit at the end. Drink or hold.

Full bottle 1,287 g. Winemaker Elena Pozzolini. Blend of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot. Spontaneous fermentation. 14 months' ageing in French oak barriques. A difficult vintage that Pozzolini described as 'odd' – incredibly dry winter, unusually hot especially in spring and summer, and then massive rainfall in September. When I first tasted this wine it had been open (just in the bottle, not decanted) for an hour and a half. It was a tightly bound, heavy, firmly closed, leather-backed volume. Stubborn, persistent, I prised open some pages: leather, chocolate, black cherry, cinnamon bark. Wet gravel and gravel dust. Stoniness down the length of the spine. Black, black fruit. I left it for seven hours in a glass. It gave me mulberries, crushed on hot stones on a hot summer day and smeared on children's round cheeks and black under their little finger nails. It gave me those hot stones, again, hours after the sun has set and the cool indigo of night has leant into their warmth. It gave me stone walls, the echo of laughter, black ink, the smell of purple storm clouds. Two weeks later, the wine was still glowing richly with life, fruit of black velvet. A wine that goes on and on... (TC)