Pulenta Estate Gran Cabernet Franc, Lujan de Cuyo, Argentina

普蘭塔酒莊特級珍藏品麗珠干紅葡萄酒

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The varietal, spicy and peppery 2017 Gran Cabernet Franc was very elegant and fresh, fresher than the 2016 I also sampled next to it. It's medium to full-bodied with moderate ripeness and very fine tannins. The oak feels very integrated after one year in barrel. 12,000 bottles were filled in July 2019.

As I saw in other 2016s, the 2016 Gran Cabernet Franc is riper than the 2017 I tasted next to it. The fruit feels a bit cooked, combined with some peppery notes. There are plenty of dusty tannins and some smoky undertones. It finishes dry. 15,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2019.

Pulenta was serious about producing top Cabernet Franc way before the fashion for the grape started in Argentina. The 2015 Gran Cabernet Franc, produced with grapes from their estate vineyards in Alto Agrelo, is from a fresher year, with wines of lower alcohol and good acidity. As is often the case here, this fermented with selected yeasts in a combination of concrete, stainless steel vats and oak barrels, and it matured in French oak barrels, 50% of them new, the rest second and third use, for 12 to 16 months. There are notes of roasted morrón peppers, with a kind of sweetness and harmony that is quite impressive. It has an elegant palate, with very fine tannins. There is power but in a subtle way, serious, balanced and nicely textured. It feels softer and rounder than the 2014, which is already very impressive for the year. 15,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2017.

The 2014 Gran Cabernet Franc was produced with grapes from their estate vineyards in Alto Agrelo, where it gets the typical roasted pepper aromas and round tannins. It fermented with selected yeasts in a combination of concrete, oak and stainless steel vats and oak barrels and matured in French barriques (50% new) for 12 to 16 months. It has great freshness, very defined varietal characteristics, spicy and herbal notes and an explosive nose, with a sense of harmony and coolness as well as the typical pepperiness of the reds from the Loire. The palate is very harmonious, with very fine tannins and good balance between freshness and ripeness, serious and elegant. I like this very much. 15,000 bottles were filled in December 2016.

They are selling Cabernet Franc quite well, so they are soon going to release the 2013 Gran Cabernet Franc, which is produced with grapes from their estate vineyards in Alto Agrelo. It fermented in a combination of concrete and stainless steel vats and new oak barrels with selected yeasts and matured in French barriques for 18 months. It has a nose of baked red peppers and has a sweetish sensation in the palate (even though it's dry) that somehow made me think of a Chinon. It has a lighter color than any other wine from the Gran range, and has a perfumed nose and refined palate. With time in the glass it developed some roasted aromas reminiscent of coffee grains. The integration of the oak is superb, which is a constant across their wines. This is a noteworthy Cabernet Franc, fresher than the last one I tasted, the 2011. 20,000 bottles produced.