NEW! Viñas de Dávalos Malbec Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

Brace yourselves! This weighs in at an eye-watering 17% alcohol. Yes, really, but don’t be thinking it’s like port or something akin to that; this is hand-crafted table wine made from old vines and the high alcohol is simply a fact of life, not a style statement. It is Raul Davalos Senior’s essential message to the wine world – love me or loathe me, I am what I am! This is virtually black in appearance and equally arresting on the nose. 80% Malbec and 20% Cabernet are actually co-fermented, perhaps another key to the wine’s unique personality. Lots of lush jammy fruit on the palate but the wine is not ‘hot’ or ‘baked’, it is intense and really well structured. This is once-in-a-lifetime wine, something crazy wine-heads will find difficult to resist; not so much a thing of beauty as, well, a thing. In any case, we adore it!

94 Points, Jay Miller, eRobertParker.com