I was in one of the Cambridge Wine Merchants’ (yes, another of their wines) branches a little while ago. I was chatting with a colleague, who pointed this wine out to me, and said I might like it. It’s an experimental wine from Argentina, so I decided to give it a go. I’m glad I did.
Pequeñas Fermentaciones is El Porvenir’s line of experimental wines, so only 3500 bottles of this were produced.
In the glass
Clear, bright. Light ruby. Very pretty to just look at, like when a jewel (a ruby perhaps?) catches the sun. This is one of those wines I can spend time just admiring. And I do. Luckily, when I was tasting this, it was actually a sunny day, and late enough that the sun caught the wine nicely.
The nose
Nothing at all. After lots (and lots) of sniffing, and swirling and all that other wine-tasting stuff, I get: More nothing. With an undertone of nada. Ah, well.
The palate
Light on the palate. My first notes after calling it ‘light’ were to note: ‘Tastes “bright” – Oh, I like this.’
That really should be enough, but I’ll continue. In keeping with the pretty much nothing on the palate, I’m getting red fruits, but a bit hard to be more specific with. Cherries, definitely. And red ones, not black. Probably some red apple as well or apple skin as well. There’s some black pepper on the finish.
And yes, it tastes ‘bright.’ That’s the only appropriate word. It’s acidity and the lovely, if a bit vague to me, red fruits.
The finish. Ah, it’s very long. It just lingers. Unusually, it lingers mostly on the gums. What makes this unusual is it isn’t tannins that are lingering. If you’ve ever had a too-young Bordeaux, or similar, you’ll be familiar with that sensation that your mouth has sort of gummed up from the overly prominent tannins that haven’t integrated yet, and that’s all there is in the world of taste. It’s not that at all. It’s more like acidity on the gums – a certain prickliness or zinginess. I can’t ever recall coming across this before. Whatever it is, I like it.
Rating
Very Pretty on visuals, with Yummy-plus overall. Very more-ish.
Sustainability
They practice ‘integrated, sustainable and organic viticulture.’ Elsewhere on their website, they also mention that at least some of their winemaking operation is gravity fed, rather than using pumps to move the juice about.
The technical info and such
13.0% , 100% Garnacha (aka Grenache). £22.99 from Cambridge Wine Merchants