Viñalba Reserve Malbec Touriga Nacional 2020

The addition of Touriga Nacional, Portugal's premier Port grape, transforms this Mendoza Malbec into something extraordinary. While traditional Malbecs rely on their natural purple fruit intensity, the Touriga Nacional elevates the aromatics to 'stratospheric' levels and adds distinctive spice, pepper notes, and chunky tannins. This Portuguese variety acts as a flavour amplifier, creating a more complex and lifted wine that maintains Malbec's signature smoothness while gaining additional structural depth.

Touriga Nacional brings unique qualities that complement Malbec beautifully - it's naturally aromatic and adds structural complexity without overwhelming the base wine. In Portugal, Touriga Nacional is prized for its ability to enhance blends with lifted aromatics and firm tannins. When paired with Mendoza Malbec's full mid-palate fruit smoothness, it creates a harmonious dance where each variety enhances the other's strengths, resulting in a more sophisticated and age-worthy wine.

This refers to the wine's exceptional aromatic intensity and complexity, largely thanks to the Touriga Nacional component. The blend creates layers of scent that leap from the glass - beyond typical Malbec's dark fruit aromas, you'll experience enhanced floral notes, spice, and pepper characteristics. These elevated aromatics make the wine more engaging and food-friendly, as the enhanced bouquet prepares your palate for the rich flavours of blackcurrant, chocolate, and plum that follow.

A 95-point score from the IWC represents exceptional quality, placing this wine in the top tier of international wines. The IWC is one of the world's most respected wine competitions, judged by Masters of Wine and leading industry professionals. Combined with its Gold medal, this recognition validates the innovative blend's success and suggests the wine offers outstanding value, complexity, and ageing potential that rivals wines costing significantly more.

The wine's rich profile with blackcurrant, chocolate, and plum flavours, enhanced by Touriga Nacional's spice and pepper notes, makes it ideal for robust dishes. Think grilled Argentine beef, lamb with herbs, or rich game meats where the wine's full body and chunky tannins can stand up to intense flavours. The Portuguese influence also makes it excellent with chorizo, aged cheeses, or even dark chocolate desserts, while the lifted aromatics complement dishes with complex spice profiles.