Domaine Bousquet Malbec 2021 (750ml)

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine Spectator

 

A fresh and lively expression, offering inviting floral cherry and raspberry notes, with loamy earth and spice details weaving in.  Ends with a push of fresh acidity and a hint of singed orange peel.

 

Domaine Bousquet Malbec 2021

 

Made with Organic Grapes

 

Domaine Bousquet’s premium varietal series comprises a blend of estate and purchased fruit from the Uco Valley.  The grapes benefit from major diurnal temperature swings, achieving exuberant ripeness while retaining the juiciness that invites a second glass.  The wines are vinified with a French sensibility.  The wines are un-oaked – an on-trend sensibility of little or no oak to let the fruit shine through and make the wines extremely food-friendly.

 

100% Malbec, fermented in stainless steel tanks to preserve its varietal typicity and achieve a fruity and expressive character.

 

Tasting Notes

 

It is a wine of dark violet color.  In the nose, it presents intense aromas of blackberry with notes of red and blackcurrant and plum.  The mouth highlights notes of ripe plums with soft and elegant tannins.

 

Food Pairings

 

It goes well with red meats, sauces, cheeses, and pasta.

 

Vineyard

 

The estate consists of 240 hectares in Gualtallary, Tupungato, Uco Valley (Mendoza).  The area has idyllic wine-growing conditions.  The vineyard is situated in the Andes foothills at an altitude of 1200 meters/4000 feet above sea level.  Due to its location, Domaine Bousquet’s vineyards benefits from a cool climate and constant fresh air.

 

Climate

 

With rainfall averaging a scant 20 cm per year, water delivery to the vines can be well controlled.  Irrigation is processed through a drop-by-drop system harnessing the pure Andean mountain run-off.  This special water creates lower pH in the grapes, resulting in higher acidity and more color in the wine.  The desert-like climate has a huge 59° F day/night temperature differential.

 

Soil

 

Thanks to the sandy soil, drainage tends to be excellent.  Most of the soil surface has low concentrations of organic material due to the elevation and climate, which produces very favorable stress in each of our vines.  Grapes develop increased levels of sugar and acidity.  Sandy soils help create wines with elegant profiles.

 

Vines

 

The vineyard was planted on virgin land by Jean Bousquet after its purchase in 1997.  Once the vines reach their optimum ripeness, the grapes are picked by hand and gathered in small trays.  Organic grapes have greater concentration thanks to lower yields.  Thicker skins, developed by the grapes to protect against heat and cold, give us greater body, flavor, and aromatics.

 

Organic Wines

 

All these great attributes give the grapes the possibility to attain optimum maturation without having to use pesticides or other chemical products, hence allowing Domaine Bousquet to produce high quality and healthy organically-grown grapes, which are then transformed into high-quality organic wines.

 

Winery

 

Domaine Bousquet´s philosophy is to focus on preserving the grapes high-quality characteristics, which is why gentle handling of the fruit is the guiding principle of our winery.

 

The team working in our cellar is detail oriented and strives to combine traditional with modern methods in order to produce high quality and polished style wines.

 

The winery can handle about 4.5 million liters of premium wine, and the cellar includes stainless and cement vats, as well as French oak barrels.

 

Grapes arrive in small boxes to the receiving area, where they are hand-sorted before going to the de-stemmer.  After a gentle destemming, the fruit is then sent to tanks for maceration and then fermentation for 30 days approximately.  The fermentation is carried out with selected yeast at a controlled temperature.  During the winemaking process, our winemaking team controls and regularly supervises our wines to ensure exceptional quality.

 

 

Domaine Bousquet

 

Naturally Elegant Wine

 

The World’s Most Awarded Organic Winery

 

The Bousquet family hail from the city of Carcassonne, in the South of France and have 4 generations of history in the winemaking tradition.  Our passion is to produce wines of superior quality and this is what lead us to Argentina to begin a new chapter.

 

A 1990 vacation in Argentina was all it took.  For third-generation winemaker Jean Bousquet, it was love at first sight.  The object of the Frenchman’s desire: the Gualtallary Valley, a scenic, remote, arid terrain high in the Tupungato district of the Uco Valley in Argentina’s Mendoza region, close to the border with Chile.  Here, where the condors fly and not a vine in sight, Bousquet discovered his dream terroir, an ideal location in which to nurture organically-grown wines.

 

With altitudes ranging up to 5,249 feet, Gualtallary occupies the highest extremes of Mendoza’s viticultural limits.  Fast-forward to the present and wine cognoscenti recognize it as the source of some of Mendoza’s finest wines.  Back then, it was virgin territory: tracts of semi-desert, nothing planted, no water above ground, no electricity and a single dirt track by way of access.  Locals dismissed the area as too cold for growing grapes.  Bousquet, on the other hand, reckoned he’d found the perfect blend between his French homeland and the New World (sunny, with high natural acidity and a potential for relatively fruit-forward wines).

 

Bousquet’s daughter, economist Anne Bousquet, and her husband Labid Al Ameri, a successful trader with Fidelity in Boston, found themselves increasingly drawn to the cause, including the opportunity it offered to put their shared philosophy on sustainability into effect.  After a 2002 trip to Argentina, the couple began to invest in Domaine Bousquet.  In 2005, Al Ameri joined his father-in-law full time, helping with the construction of the winery.  Anne continued her work as an economist, before joining the company in 2008.  In 2009, the couple moved to Tupungato full-time, assuming full ownership of Domaine Bousquet in 2011.

 

Nowadays, Domaine Bousquet produces 4 million liters a year and export 95% of its volume to more than 50 countries.  With our own import companies in the USA, Europe, and Brazil, Domaine Bousquet currently ranks in the top 20 Argentine wineries in terms of exports and is the leader in organic wine.

 

 

Rated 90 Points by Wine Spectator

 

A fresh and lively expression, offering inviting floral cherry and raspberry notes, with loamy earth and spice details weaving in.  Ends with a push of fresh acidity and a hint of singed orange peel.