2008 Lamadrid Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva Mendoza

91 points erobertparker.com: "Opaque purple; smoke, Asian spices, scorched earth, cassis; complex, lengthy, way over-delivers." (Oct 2010) The more I taste Hector Durigutti’s wines, the more I wonder if there is anything that he is not capable of knocking out of the park. Here is a guy who makes delicious malbec and bonarda under his eponymous label, as well as terrific stuff under the Lamadrid name. Here, we have a cabernet from vines averaging 37 years of age, yielding a mere 1 kilogram per plant, which will in turn produce one bottle of wine. This is far lower than normal yields for cab in Argentina, and the difference shows in the flavors of this wine: pure, intense cherry fruit that is expressive and representative of very solid raw material. Durigutti is a guy who clearly knows where the best vineyards are located, and then works well in the cellar, carrying out native yeast fermentations and never over working his wines. It’s fair to say that the result is in the bottle. If cab has a future in Argentina (and I firmly believe that it does), then we can hopefully look forward to more terrific values such as this one. I challenge anyone to find cabernet this good for under $15 from California or anywhere else. (Joe Manekin, K&L South American wine buyer)