After spending an exhausting week in New York for work, I was desperate for some much needed sofa time, sweats, TV catch up and a good look at my little stock of fabulous wines. The reason I have such fabulous wine right now is because I have fabulous friends.
One of the great things about people knowing you are a lover of wine, have a little bit of an education in it (not a lot) and an appreciation of the glorious drink, they tend to buy you bottles to impress. This doesn’t mean stupidly expensive wines; it just means a wine that has had an impact on them somehow and in turn they hope will have an impact on me. I love my friends! Oh and yes some of them are a little pricey so I love my friends even more!
As anyone who lives in Boston knows it was cold on Saturday. I mean crazy 110F degrees cold or when I have to translate that to my family in England so they actually get how cold it is, its -110C!! Saying that has an impact when they are complaining about what we would think of as quite mild :).
So, back to wines. Saturday called for a comforting, cozy, fleece wearing red wine that would pair well with Criminal Minds, NCIS and Elementary. Please don’t mock my TV viewing.
Unfamiliar with some of my new wines, I basically went down the route of which label do I like best for evening with the knowledge that I was looking for a grape on the heartier side.
I picked a DiamAndes Perlita Malbec-Syrah 2012 from the Mendoza region of Argentina, which has a fun, contemporary stripy label and after looking online, finding out is has a really good price at just $12. Now it was time to find out if it is also a good wine.
DiamAndes Perlita Malbec-Syrah 2012, Mendoza Argentina
With the color of deep burgundy this Malbec (80%)/Syrah (20%) blend is quite spicy and tickles the nose a little with smoky aromas and an abundance of ripe dark slightly sour cherries. I was excited to taste it. I would have thought it was going to be mild on the tongue but my first taste had quite a bite as it lingers for just a moment. It was thrilling and a great choice for my evening. It has an abundance of rich, juicy plums and black fruits with hints vanilla and a medium body.
Now, while it paired really well with my evening of TV viewing in particular, NCIS, I do believe it would be great paired with an Italian Chicken Stew.
I am not sure who bought me this but wine but I thank you very much. I will be buying it again and very soon.
My rating…
About the Winery
It’s in 1999 that Michel Rolland along with 6 other Bordeaux winemakers founded the Clos de los Siete : an innovative and unique concept : More than 850 hectares divided in 7 plots, each one with its own winery. The vineyard is located in Mendoza, in the heart of the Uco valley, one of the best quality vineyard areas in Argentina. In 2005, the Bonnie family, owners of the renowned Grand Cru Classé Château Malartic-Lagravière, and its neighboring Pessac-Léognan Château Gazin Rocquencourt became part of this Argentinean adventure. Through the purchase, along with their partners, of a single estate of 130 hectares within the Clos de Los Siete, Bodega DiamAndes was born.
