Blend: 45% Tannat, 25% Cabernet Franc, 18% Petit Verdot and 12% Marselan.
The first impression here delivers lots of citrus and orange rind. Then blueberries, licorice, forest floor, underbrush and dark chocolate come into the picture as well as tile and clay. The palate shows a unique combination of agile blue fruit and acid drive with firm, grainy tannins and a chewy, very mineral finish. A blend of 45% tannat, 25% cabernet franc, 18% petit verdot and 12% marselan. Drink in 2021.
A very refined style with bounteous hints of herbs and tobacco coming from the input of Cabernet Franc, plus firm tannin and a long, salty finish.
This is the top selection from Garzón, named for the weathered rock that underlies the estate’s 540 acres of vines. The estate is close to the Atlantic, 11 miles from the coast. It includes parcels of tannat (45 percent), cabernet franc (25 percent), petit verdot and marselan. Balasto is a rich wine in 2016, with bright blueberry concentration to its fruit flavors, and smoky, meaty char to its oak. Youthfully tannic, it needs a few years of bottle age to mellow.
The 2016 Balasto is mostly a 45/25 blend of Tannat and Cabernet Franc with Petit Verdot and Marselan for the rest. It was aged for 20 months in second use, untoasted French foudres and comes in at 14.5% alcohol. This is not as big or as rich as the 2015, but it seems better balanced and more focused, if not quite as attention-getting. The restraint helps this along and makes it seem like a fine food wine. Granting that they were not tasted from the same bottle size (and are certainly not at the same stage of development), this seems to me to be slightly better than the 2015. Reasonable minds might differ. This was tasted from a half bottle, although the price references a full bottle.
Uruguay
P8,250
Blend: 45% Tannat, 25% Cabernet Franc, 18% Petit Verdot and 12% Marselan.
The first impression here delivers lots of citrus and orange rind. Then blueberries, licorice, forest floor, underbrush and dark chocolate come into the picture as well as tile and clay. The palate shows a unique combination of agile blue fruit and acid drive with firm, grainy tannins and a chewy, very mineral finish. A blend of 45% tannat, 25% cabernet franc, 18% petit verdot and 12% marselan. Drink in 2021.
A very refined style with bounteous hints of herbs and tobacco coming from the input of Cabernet Franc, plus firm tannin and a long, salty finish.
This is the top selection from Garzón, named for the weathered rock that underlies the estate’s 540 acres of vines. The estate is close to the Atlantic, 11 miles from the coast. It includes parcels of tannat (45 percent), cabernet franc (25 percent), petit verdot and marselan. Balasto is a rich wine in 2016, with bright blueberry concentration to its fruit flavors, and smoky, meaty char to its oak. Youthfully tannic, it needs a few years of bottle age to mellow.
The 2016 Balasto is mostly a 45/25 blend of Tannat and Cabernet Franc with Petit Verdot and Marselan for the rest. It was aged for 20 months in second use, untoasted French foudres and comes in at 14.5% alcohol. This is not as big or as rich as the 2015, but it seems better balanced and more focused, if not quite as attention-getting. The restraint helps this along and makes it seem like a fine food wine. Granting that they were not tasted from the same bottle size (and are certainly not at the same stage of development), this seems to me to be slightly better than the 2015. Reasonable minds might differ. This was tasted from a half bottle, although the price references a full bottle.
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