2020 Benmarco "Expresivo" Red Blend Valle de Uco
SKU #1660950
96 points
James Suckling
A nuanced but deep nose, showing crushed stones, fresh and glossy blackberries and blueberries, then flowers, asphalt, cocoa powder and chalk. Broad, exuberant and concentrated, but not at all heavy. This is juicy and so polished and dense, with silky, chalky tannins to coat the blueberry fruit. Fleshy, tight and seamless. Long and so seductive now.
(11/2022)
94 points
Tim Atkin
Expresivo is the top red under the BenMarco label, produced from a marriage of Malbec and
15% Cabernet Franc. Showing the classic rosemary and wild thyme scents of Gualtallary, this is wonderfully focused and poised, with chalky intensity, layers of plum and blackberry fruit and a hint of graphite on the finish.
(9/2022)
93 points
Wine Advocate
The 2020 BenMarco Expresivo was produced with a blend of Malbec and 15% Cabernet Franc from Gualtallary ,cropped from a warm and dry year when the grapes ripened fast and thoroughly to 14.5% alcohol. It has notes of creamy oak and sweet spices and matured in new and used oak barrels for 14 months. It's juicy and medium to full-bodied with fine tannins and chalkiness, as it was selected from the whiter soils with more stones and limestone. (LG)
(11/2022)
92 points
Vinous
The 2020 BenMarco Expresivo is Malbec with a 15% dash of Cabernet Franc from Gualtallary, Uco Valley and was aged for 14 months in 70% new barrels. A dark purple in hue. The nose offers ripe fruit with herbs, hints of plum jam and blackberry. Intense and vigorous in the mouth with a firm, ripe and complex expression, the finish is fruity with a chalky quality that adds to the depth. This is a flavorful wine made riper by the warm year. (JH)
(11/2022)
K&L Notes
Dominio del Plata, the winery which produces Crios and Susana Balbo's eponymous bottlings, also produces Benmarco, wines which are the vision of head winemaker and viticulturist Edy del Popolo. We've met Edy, and can tell you that, besides being an engaging, thoughtful, passionate and very likeable wine guy, he knows his stuff - the proof is in this bottle! Featuring Malbec and Cabernet Franc grown in the chalky soils of the Uco Valley's Gualtallary district, this wine has loads of sumptuous dark fruit, and sees its fair share of new oak. The quality of the fruit and terroir shines through, though, and as a result this rich, generous, full-bodied red does not seem outsized or overmatched by oak. It's as much a tribute to Edy as it is to the quality of terroir in the Uco Valley.
