Casarena Sinco 2014

Although Argentina is best known internationally for deeply colored, full-bodied Malbecs, it is Argentina’s Cabernet Sauvignons from old vines that garner the greatest scores and provide the grandest red wines to grace the tables of the great steak houses of Buenos Aires and Mendoza. Casarena has put Argentina’s two top varietals together in the 2014 Casarena Sinco to great acclaim. In its debut vintage, the 2014 Sinco (60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Malbec) has hit a home run and garnered many 90+ point scores, including 92 points from Wine & Spirits Magazine. The 2014 Sinco deserves high praise for seamlessly wedding Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec into a delicious, sophisticated blend that would be hard to resist at twice the price. The deeply colored 2014 Sinco offers plenty to excite the senses, including an amplifying bouquet of red and black fruits, cassis, and well integrated floral and spice tones that seem to leap from the glass and at the same time seep into the center of the wine. Ripe, plush, and silky smooth in the mouth, the 2014 Sinco captivates the palate with ripe blackberry, mulberry, and cassis flavors infused with tantalizing touches of cinnamon, violets and dark chocolate. Authoritative, yet perfectly balanced, the 2014 Sinco finishes with great length and panache. Before serving, we suggest affording the 2014 Sinco at least thirty minutes of aeration at cool room temperature (60º-64º F). Enjoy!

In Argentina, there would be little doubt as to the proper accompaniment to Casarena’s 2014 Sinco, or for that matter to any high quality Cabernet or Malbec. It would be beef, beef, and more beef, but in the case of the 2014 Sinco, we think not just any cut of beef. Our preferences lie with Beef Tenderloin encrusted with black pepper and herbs or, better still, Beef Wellington. Grilled Stuffed Veal Chops served with roasted Red Bliss potatoes and root vegetables also provide wonderful companionship to Casarena’s seamless 2014 Sinco. Rack of Lamb and savory pork roasts make fine accompaniments as well. Sea Bass in a savory sauce constitutes another fine choice. Soft cow’s milk cheeses also pair splendidly with Sinco, and they provide the ideal accompaniment to showcase the wine’s many attributes, not the least of which is its wide palate appeal. Buen Provecho!

Casarena is a young boutique winery that enjoys a well-deserved reputation for producing wines of uncompromising quality at all levels of its portfolio. In a land of extremes and in a viticultural region known equally for oceans of cheap, hunky one dimensional wines as well as expensive, complex full-bodied masterpieces, Casarena shines as a beacon of quality and value. Situated in Mendoza’s premier viticultural areas of Agrelo and Lujan de Cuyo, Casarena’s ultimate goal is to become Mendoza’s greatest vineyard project. Casarena utilizes Mendoza’s finest terroirs at differing elevations to produce world-class wines.

Eno Rolland (renowned Bordeaux oenologist Michel Rolland’s team of consultants) consulted at Casarena from the very start, so not surprisingly Casarena’s definitive mantra is “less quantity, more quality.” All of the grapes for Casarena’s wines emanate from the estate’s own vineyards and the resulting wines are made by controlling every aspect of the vinification process. Casarena sets high standards for its wines. It sells in bulk any juice that does not come up to its standards in order to maintain the consistency, quality and integrity of the wine sold as Casarena – a rarity in Argentina. Alejandro Sejanovich, of Catena fame, spearheads the viticulture at Casarena, ensuring that every plant reaches its maximum potential, while winemaker Bernardo Bossi turns Sejanovich’s beautiful fruit into exceptional wines.

The Casarena line of wine hails from carefully selected parcels of vineyards, and has been aged in 100% new French Oak. Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Malbec constitute the lion’s share of the estate’s production, and only small batches with intense color and aromatics qualify as Estate Reserve or Single Vineyard offerings. Sinco, a sophisticated blend of select barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec from old vines, is Casarena’s newest venture and perhaps the most sophisticated of Casarena’s wines. Casarena also offers a very limited bottling of a single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from Owen’s Vineyard, a tiny high altitude plot that was planted in the 1930s, and whose vines average 85 years of age. An equally impressive single vineyard Malbec from Jamilla’s Vineyard also emanates from Casarena’s old estate vines.