Terrazas de Los Andes Cheval des Andes (2016)

Zusätzliche Information

Vinee Beschreibung und Bewertung

97+/100 PP

'I also tasted the 2015 and 2016 next to the newly released 2017 to give it some context and to see the evolution and changes implemented in the last few years. The 2016 Cheval des Andes is probably the freshest wine produced to date and the first vintage when they used 100% own grapes. Of the trio of vintages tasted together—2015, 2016 and 2017—this is the one with less alcohol and more freshness, and it remains a more austere expression, reflecting a cooler and wetter year that resulted in a less exuberant wine, a benchmark for freshness. I'm looking forward to 2018 to see where they go in the next cool vintage after this 2016... They produced 60,000 bottles and 2,400 magnums. It was bottled in December 2017.'

'Since 2012, the team of Cheval Blanc has been more and more involved in the technical management of Cheval des Andes and even more so nowadays with the arrival of Gérald Gabillet, a French viticulturist and winemaker who studied and trained in Bordeaux, as technical manager. He is fully dedicated to the project to translate the vision of Cheval Blanc on each detail from the vineyard management to vinification and aging. They are currently working very deeply in the irrigation management and changed all the younger vineyards (Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec) from flood irrigation to drip irrigation. The objective is to achieve a better management of water and natural freshness (they have had a specialized consultant on irrigation since 2015) with ripe tannins and ZERO green notes. The aim is to irrigate as little as possible and be able to pick early but getting ripe grapes full of flavor, which is what they think brings the freshness and elegance they want in their wines. The focus in the last few years has been the vineyards to work with more precision, in things that can be seen but also other aspects, like pruning and massal selections and so on. The technical team from Cheval Blanc often travels to Mendoza, for example, to train the staff there on pruning and other things. In the winery, they have been working a lot on the balance between wood and wine in order to preserve the fruit expression. After several years of trials, they are now using a very high amount of bigger volumes (foudres of 400 and 2,500 liters), and they introduced an Austrian cooper to their barrel park.'
(Luis Gutiérrez, robertparker.com)

99/100 JS

'Super refined and beautiful with flowers, spices, dried fruit and hints of stones. Medium to full body with very fine tannins and a gorgeous finish. Shows great finesse and depth. Savory character, as always, but in check. Drink in 2022.'
(James Suckling, jamessuckling.com)

'«Exceptional» is the word we can use to describe the 2016 harvest. The new vintage was cropped from a completely unusual year due to unstable temperatures – cooler than the average and with an exceptional amount of rain marked by El Niño, a cyclical phenomenon caused by the warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This resulted in heavy rainfall between October and December.
Thanks to the spring rainfall during budburst and veraison, the phenological cycle was delayed by 20 days. On one hand , due to higher temperatures followed by a dry summer, the vines produced lower yields than usual. While on the other hand they produced small but rich and concentrated berries.'
(Terrazas de Los Andes)