Wine – 2003 Bodega Norton Privada Mendoza
I like a good-looking wine bottle… and like my site’s URL says, the more elegantly simple the label, the better (more can really be less). The first 2 things I noticed about this wine were the stylishly simple label and when I picked up the bottle, how bloody heavy it is. Outside of Champagne, this is possibly the heftiest bottle of wine I’ve held. The wine feels like a reserve – there were only 600 cases made made from 50 to 80 year-old vines.
The pricey packaging is the first clue to the quality of the wine inside the bottle. There’s an Argentinian twist on the Bordeaux-like blend – it’s 40% Malbec, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot.
Mmmmm-mmmmmm… and it is bloody good. Dark red in the glass, it has a nose bursting with coffee, leather and dark, ripe, but not slutty fruit. A sip shows tannins and the fruit rounded out with a coffee and cocoa edge. It’s very well-balanced and has the structure of a Brazilian supermodel.
What it needs is a little bit of time. It’s delicious now, but will be better in 6 months to a year, or more. For the money, it’s fantastic. Buy some, put it in a closet (or a cellar for you fancy folk) and try a bottle now and then until what you bought is gone and you miss it. All good things come to an end, but this one just costs less than most for what you get.
$25 here in BC.
