Composition: Undisclosed Red Blend.
Region: Mendoza, Argentina.
Price: About $115.

This wine has a beautiful rich, blackish color and an equally rich aroma. I get the smell of sweet viscous cherry syrup, with some spice like cinnamon and nutmeg. I get some mustiness, too, like a very old wine barrel, as well as some wild fruits.

The wine starts out light and slightly watery for an Argentine blend. The flavor, though, is intense. Expect lots of mouth-puckering grapefruit or blood orange, with heavy tannins and slightly smoky leather. I also enjoy the wine’s slight wildness, very similar to tempranillo. And the aftertaste is simply delicious, as a noticeable smoky sweetness begins to emerge, balancing out the previous bitterness.

This wine needs a lot of airing. With time, it picks up berries and a Sherry-like sweetness in the flavor, along with some more body and denseness so that it doesn’t feel watery. The wine is very complex, constantly changing, even after 30 minutes of decanting.

Still, it’s one of the priciest Argentine wines on the market, and its quality isn’t significantly better than any other icon level wine from the country.

Verdict: 4.2+/5.0. 3.5/5.0 when factoring in value.

It has a beautiful color, with numerous shades of ruby, gradually transforming into a slight black in the middle. The cup is especially beautiful when you swirl it, creating a rainbow of reds, from light red to burgundy.

The aroma is refreshingly strong, smelling of the woods, trees, a bit of leather, grass, and a bit of raspberry or other ripe berries. It’s very fresh and very sylvan.

The taste is a bit rough and bitter, even as it airs out. It’s very oaky, with strong tannins. The aftertaste, moreover, picks up a very bold, rough harshess and slight dryness, both of which I don’t find very enjoyable. Still, it has a nice, slight cherry/berry flavor and picks up a lot of very pronounced nutty and dark chocolate tones as you savor it in your mouth. As it airs out, it also becomes increasingly intense in tannins and acidity, ending on a very bitter, but warming note. To be fair, some of the harshness does get moderated as well, allowing smokiness, dark chocolate, leather, and slight spice to come out on the palate a bit. The wine, then, becomes much more complex than it might seem on first taste. Unfortunately, in the process it also becomes overpoweringly bitter.

Score: 3.3/5.0

Golden color is quite nice. Great tints—a variety of yellows come through, like the color of mulberries and sunlight.

Great aroma—sweet raisins, mixed with a strong alcohol and spice smell. Very humid and fresh.

Taste is interesting. Very sweet, but with a nice hint of saltiness to it that makes it ideal with cheese. It has a nice bittersweet quality to it, and the saltiness just leaves you thirsting for more. Finishes with just a tad of spice.

Overall Score: 3.6/5.0. If matched with cheese, this wine is more of a 4.0/5.0. The enjoyment of this wine really depends on the food that it’s matched with. Cheese really brings out its potential.

This wine was part of a tasting, so I was unable to find out its exact year, but I suspect it was the latest year at the time, the 2008.

Pale yellow, with some shades of green in there.

Aroma of fruits and flowers, like roses and peaches, though nothing notable.

Bitter, and it leaves a bad aftertaste. Very dry, and weak on flavor. Still, a good balance to it b/t acidity and fruitiness. Some notes of peppers, orange, and honey are discernable.

Overall Score: 2.2/5.0.

Beautiful ruby color, with strong violet tints. Seems mature, the legs aren’t too great.

Floral, peppery aroma. Some notes of nuts and plums as well.

Lots of body, very round, and very structured. Very long as well. Has a strong oak taste, with pronounced tannins. There are some hints of coffee, nuts, and chocolate, and it’s very spicy. Not too complex, and the flavors aren’t too pronounced, but the wine itself has a good elegance and strength to it.

Overall: 3.5/5.0

The color is an intense red, with dark purplish tints, but is somewhat muddy.

It has a big aroma, but it’s soft, in the sense of being rather pleasant and not overwhelming. It smells earthy, with notes of rain, dirt, raisins, and plums.

The wine is rather smooth, with a good, bitter, spicy, strong tannin end. The taste doesn’t exactly jump out at you as phenomenal, and the wine lacks complexity, but the taste is still rather good. The wine picks up a very oaky taste as you hold it in your mouth, which works to its disadvantage—it kind of blunts the spiciness that I find so pleasing in a Syrah. The taste is a bit bland and boring after a while, but the wine has great fundamentals and is very easy to drink, with a good body to it.

Overall Score: 3.8/5.0.

This wine was part of a wine tasting at a bar, so I couldn’t get the year, though I suspect it’s the 2008. It is the youngest line of Winery Luigi Bosca.

Intense red color.

Nice aroma—fruity and acidic.

Very smooth. Feels young, but still goes down with no problem. Lacking in strong flavors or acidity, though. Causes a slight puckering in the mouth. Very drinkable, but very bland in general.

Overall Score: 2.5-3.0/5.0

Lovely golden color, with greenish tints. In fact, it’s probably my favorite aspect of this wine.

Fruity aroma, especially of peaches and tropical fruits in general. Some vanilla and coffee are also present, but subtle.

The wine is rather dry, acidic, and bittersweet, to my dislike (I prefer my white wines a little on the sweeter side). Nevertheless, the fruity flavors definitely come out and mix extremely well with the acidity, helping to balance the bitterness and dryness of the wine. Good length, too—the fruity dryness really persists on the palate.

Overall Score: 3.5/5.0. Much better than most white wines you typically find in Argentina. Recommended for anyone who likes a dry, light wine, but it’s not for me.

Beautiful color—red, with purplish tints, but on the golden side, with lots of whitish and goldish tints (under the light).

Aroma of plums, peaches, dried fruits, with a lot of pepper and cinnamon.

The wine is smooth, direct, and simple. There are bitter, acidic, and fruity flavors, and a coffee, spicy, red pepper taste especially comes through. Though the wine is very drinkable, the flavor is a bit too soft and bland.

Overall Score: 3.6/5.0

This was part of a restaurant tasting, and I couldn’t check the year on this wine, but I think it’s a very new experiment, so there should be only one year of it made.

Also note that, unlike most dessert wines in Argentina, this wine is fortified (which is definitely a plus).

Color, as expected, is a dark ruby—nice, but nothing special. Sweet, fruity aroma. Not too strong. Has a sweet, bitter taste to it. Flavor is not too sweet or fruity, but it has a refreshing acid spiciness to it. Causes a nice puckering, but has a bit too much bitterness to it. Also lacks complexity.

Overall Score: 2.0/5.0. This is a failed experiment in developing a fortified dessert wine for Argentina. If you want a better sweet wine, turn to the Las Perdices Malbec Ice.