Bodega Poesia Clos des Andes Malbec 2016

To date, our biggest Malbec offering was the Aruma Malbec, a fabulous joint project between Chateau Rothschild and Nicolas Catena. Today’s Malbec is cut from the very same cloth. The wine comes from Bodega Poesia, the Argentine project for Helene Garcin-Leveque who also owns Clos L’Eglise in Pomerol and Chateau Barde Haut in the St. Emilion Region. In 2000, she purchased an elite winery of her own in Lujan de Cuyo in the Andes Mountain range in the renowned Mendoza region. 

Bodega Poesia was founded in 2000, when Helene Garcin-Leveque was seeking a property of her own (her family is the proprietor of Clos l’Eglise in Pomerol among others.) She discovered a small vineyard located between Mendel and Cheval des Andes: 13-hectares of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, the latter planted on its own rootstock in 1935. The vineyard is comprised of four rows of vines interpolated by a row of olive trees that Helene thought looked like a Garden of Eden and so she christened it “Poesia,” “poetry” in Spanish.

The 2016 Bodega Poesia “Clos des Andes” is one of my best under-$20 finds of the year. It has all the dense character that you should expect from vines under massive natural stress but by harvesting early in the season – it retains an enticing, mouth-watering acidity. Packed with rich dark fruits but with crisp acidity that makes this the perfect wine.