2012 Felino Malbec

The 2012 Felino Malbec, which includes 4% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Merlot, was sourced in Lujan de Cuyo, Maipu and Uco Valley, something they really decide at the time of bottling. Malolactic fermentation is carried out in French and American oak barrels of which 20% are new, where the wine then ages for eight months. It has the brightest, liveliest color of the red Felinos, and starts slightly reduced, something common when Malbec has only breathed through the pores of the oak for a short time. With time and air, it starts developing some licorice and red and black fruit notes. The medium-bodied palate has fine tannins, and juicy red fruit and violet flavors, with a slightly bitter finish. Decant and enjoy! Drink now-2018. I met with Paul Hobbs and his partners Luis Barraud and Andrea Marchioli in Madrid. However, as a result of some air traffic incidents, Hobbs had to leave before Luis and Andrea arrived with the bottles, so I spent a couple of hours sitting and chatting with a very famous winemaker with just a glass of beer and some tapas in front of us! I had a bit of a geeky discussion with Paul Hobbs, talking at length about fascinating subjects like brett and so on, but I was really curious to understand why they ferment the whites with indigenous yeast but use selected yeasts for the reds. He told me that he thinks they are ready to ferment the reds with indigenous yeasts as they have good control of fermentations. He prefers indigenous, but is not willing to take risks and prefers to wait until ready. He finds a bigger difference in the whites and even though fermenting whites with indigenous yeasts is more complicated than fermenting reds, he’d rather start with them. A couple of days later I sat down with Luis and Andrea and tasted through their portfolio. The aim here is for powerful but elegant wines. They favor 2011 compared to 2010, as they think it is a bit fresher, which helped them to achieve their goal to keep the freshness and the ripe fruit, with elegance. 2010 is slightly warmer, perhaps a little more rustic. Most of their best wines are sourced from the Marchiori vineyard in Perdriel, Lujan de Cuyo province of Mendoza at the foot of the Andes at 975 meters above sea level. The vineyard is planted with 51 hectares of ungrafted Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay. The vineyard, in the heart of Perdriel, a classical district for Cabernet Sauvignon, has been in the family of Andrea Marchioli, wife of Luis Barraud, and has some very old vines in it (16,30, 50 and over 80 years of age). Luis and Andrea are both oenologists and they met Paul Hobbs during a harvest in California. Their old vineyards are about 24 hectares of Malbec; the Chardonnay and Cabernet are younger. They only built the winery in 2006, and their output is now around the 90,000-case mark. All reds are destemmed and the grapes are moved by gravity. In the Felino range, the reds (around 20% of the wine) are aged in oak and the rest stays in stainless steel vats with oak staves. When it comes to regions, they prefer Uco for Malbec and Lujan for Cabernet. For them Uco delivers happier, more floral wines and Lujan leans more toward serious wines, with more concentration and power, where the thing they have to look for is maintaining elegance. Perdriel is one of the favored locations for Cabernet Sauvignon as well as the source for ripe, jammy Malbecs. It is close to the Uco Valley, slightly warmer and lower altitude. Luis and Andrea explained how their early days were not so easy; they were very unlucky with the first few vintages, but they really took off after the 2002 vintage. 2005 was so-so and 2007 was not good enough for the top Cabernets. After that they’ve had more regularity. They told me about the complicated vintages, the ones were they had rain (1998, 2001), as the weather is usually quite regular. But rain in Mendoza is around 200 liters, and it depends on when it happens. If it is close to the harvest that’s when it creates problems. 2013 was a clean vintage when they didn’t discard any lots or moved wines from one range to another. They have also changed the irrigation, less but more frequent. Talking about the wines, the Felino range is around 14-14.5% alcohol. They are looking for fresher fruit and lower alcohol levels. A few years ago all their wines were over 15% alcohol, and now only a couple of them reach that figure. They have never done any bleeding of the wines to concentrate, as they tried in 2001, a very wet vintage, and they were not pleased with the result. Concentration and elegance has to come from the vineyard. Importer: Paul Hobbs Imports, Sebastopol, CA; tel. (707) 824-9879