Gran Enemigo Gualtallary 2011

The 2010 was a hard act to follow, and the 2011 Gran Enemigo Gualtallary Single Vineyard had to fulfill great expectations. There is less color in this 2011 (I popped a bottle of the 2010 for comparison) and more notes reminiscent of Cabernet Franc (Alejandro Vigil harvested even earlier in 2010), because it is mostly Cabernet Franc from a very chalky vineyard in Gualtallary at 1,430 meters altitude that fermented together with a small percentage of Malbec. 50% of the volume was fermented with destemmed Cabernet Franc and full-cluster Malbec. The grapes from the most calcareous soils underwent a carbonic maceration in small bins, and after one week they are pressed and the juice finishes fermenting as if it were a white wine. The texture is very fine and the acidity seems like if it had a timer and shoots a second later than you expect it, creating a small explosion in your taste buds. That provides a very long aftertaste and almost citric flavors with a mineral, almost salty finish. At the end of the day this feels lighter but at the same time more complex than the 2010. If you want to understand what Gualtallary can do, find a bottle of this wine. It's drinkable now, but it should have a long life in bottle. At this quality level the price seems too good to be true. Unfortunately, only 3,400 bottles were produced. Alejandro Vigil continues producing amazing wines under the brand El Enemigo (the enemy), including some of the best Cabernet Franc produced in Argentina. These wines seem to have created some kind of hype around the variety, but Vigil's wines are not about the variety at all, they are about the very special places where the grapes are grown, the soil, the altitude, the climatic conditions, and about the way he harvests and produces them to be transparent to what you find on the label: place and vintage. In other words, great terroir wines. A must if you want to understand Argentina's potential.

Score: 98

Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2015-2027 01 August 2015