Susana Balbo Late Harvest Malbec, Dominio del Plata 50cl Bottle

Description

Susana Balbo Late Harvest Malbec is a sweet red dessert wine. There has been a bit of interest in dessert wines made from Malbec and, although we have stocked one from Cahors, this is the first red dessert wine we have stocked from Argentina. Susana Balbo is an icon of the Argentinian wine industry, she has been working in the trade for over 30 years and finally founded her own winery, Dominio del Plata, in 1999. Today it is a family affair with her winemaker son, Joseph, and daughter, Ana, working on the business side of the business. The winery, with its modern technology and equipment, in combination with “precision” viticulture and sustainable agriculture produces very high quality wines. Each grape variety is harvested manually and vinified to show the full varietal expression but with unique and individual styles. The sweetness in the Susana Balbo Late Harvest Malbec is made, as the name suggests, by leaving the grapes on the vine for as long as possible so they can become as ripe as possible. Luckily the very dry climate and altitude (1000m) of the vineyards in Alto Agrelo, Lujan de Coyu, Mendoza mean that fungal infestations are not a problem. At harvest, the late harvest Malbec grapes are very ripe and raisined, they are hand harvested, destemmed, gently crushed and then fermented in stainless steel tanks. The fermenting wine undergoes daily pumping over as well as delastages three times a day. Delestages is a two-step “rack-and-return” process in which fermenting red wine juice is separated from the grape solids by racking and then returned to the fermenting vat to re-soak the solids. The wine is left on the skins for 35 days and undergoes malolactic fermentation. Finally the wine is aged for 18 months in 100% new French oak barrels. Residual sugar 80.53 g/L.