Antucura Gran Vin 2006

The eye observes a deep red ruby color with intense violet highlights. The nose perceives jammy aromas of red mature fruits, nuts, leather and chocolate. On the pallet it is very intense thanks to it`s mature tannins. It is well-structured, harmonic with a very long and persistent finish.
2 pts Robert Parker, Jr.’s The Wine Advocate #192
Antucura’s 2006 Gran Vin is composed of 60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon (in consultation with Michel Rolland) and was aged in new French oak for 16 months. Medium purple in color, it offers up an alluring perfume of wood smoke, cherry blossom, incense, Asian spices, cassis, boysenberry, and black cherry. Concentrated on the palate with layered fruit and potential complexity, this impeccably balanced effort will unfold for several more years and provide pleasure through 2020.
92 pts Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar (ST) Jan/Feb 11
Bright ruby-red. Currant and dark chocolate aromas on the almost syrupy-ripe nose, with a full load of exotic coconut-and-caramel oak and exotic spices from a high percentage of Taransaud barrels. Rich, velvety and full, with a captivating sweetness to the blackcurrant, boysenberry, chocolate and coconut flavors. In a more New World style than the Calcura, sweeter and fruitier, with more baby fat. But this packed wine has plenty of underlying backbone. Finishes with very lush, suave tannins.
88 pts WIne Spectator Magazine (NW) Jun 15, 2011
Toasty, offering solid red and black currant fruit that gives way to hints of licorice and incense on the slightly grippy finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec. Drink now. 1,000 cases made. –NW
The criterion for the wine-making is based in the conservation and the highest expression of the intrinsic potential quality that comes from the vines of each varietal. All the grapes go through a double manual selection of the bunches and then berries, which are slightly crushed so they can reach the tanks almost unbroken. All the tanks are filled with gravity in order to continue with the criterion of preserving the raw material. According to which parcel the grapes come from, we vary some of the management techniques like cold pre maceration with carbonic snow, percentages of juice concentration, intensity of the maceration during the fermentation, post maceration for the extraction of tannins and mouth-feel, delestage, etc. The decisions are taken monitoring the juice from the beginning not only analytically but also through the tastings. Once the vinification is over, a selection of wines that will be kept in tanks or in new barriques is made through tastings, or second-use barriques, oaked, etc. The wines are kept in barriques as pure varietals and in a second stage after the first blend, they can have some more months of ageing. When Michel Rolland visits us to define the blends, samples are prepared in each estate: varietal, harvest, ageing in barriques or tanks and available volume in each of them. According to the profile of each line and considering the necessary ageing potential, Michel makes the blend or combines the different states. These blends are usually made in two or three stages, reaching a year and a half to finish defining it, as it is the case of the Blend Antucura. After the bottling, they are stored until they are launched to the market. Our vineyard is located at the foothill of Cordón del Plata in the town of Vista Flores (1,050 mts asl), it is a region of wide thermal amplitude. The property has a total cultivated surface of 96 ha of different varieties of Vitis vinifera: Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, which are highlighted for their great enological potential. They are used to produce high-quality blends, as well as Pinot Noir. Our distinctive feature is the high concentration of plantations (5500 plants/ha) ahead the majority of the fields in Argentina (3000 plants/ha). Taking into account that the yield is never higher than 50 qq/ha, we can observe that the individual yield per plant is very low so as to get balanced production stability. By means of care, technical management and the constant monitoring of the plants by the specialized people, we get the necessary raw material to produce high-quality wines.