2012 Mendel Unus Mendoza

95-Point Unus — Roasted Rabbit at Gramercy Tavern with Mendoza’s Leading Lady

The wine we tasted with the rabbit at Gramercy Tavern painted our oversized Riedel deepest purple. But unlike most of what’s coming out of Mendoza these days, the aromas belied the wine’s origin. While the blackberries and wild raspberries were on full display, so was the lively spice-box infusion and the top-pedigree Pauillac graphite. The attack was profound — an explosion of small black fruit and violets, dense and compact, still harboring the restraint that has always made Unus Mendoza’s most intriguing answer to both Oakville hedonism and Pauillac refinement.

The 2012 is the highest-rated Argentine red EVER — from a Mendoza estate The Wine Advocate called “The Best of the Best.” Not that this discouraged us from posing the following question.

“So, how much for WineAccess?” we asked.

Anabelle looked down at the rabbit. Maybe she blushed a bit. Then she answered with the politesse we’ve come to expect from Mendoza’s leading lady. “We’re not like most in Argentina. We make very little wine, and less than 1,000 cases of the 2012 Unus. We export almost everything, to small importers in 22 countries. Let’s finish lunch. I’ll see what I can do.”

Mendoza’s climate is high desert. It rains rarely, but when it does, it comes down by the bucketful, sometimes turning to hail the size of Little League baseballs. Mendel’s old vines were planted by Anabelle’s father in the 1930s. Their deep root structure, spidering through light sand and gravel, seeks out spring water reserves in the substrata, helping the ancient vines fend off hydric stress during the arid summers. Daily temperatures before harvest might touch 90, only to drop precipitously overnight. Internationally acclaimed winemaker and partner Roberto de la Mota explained that this radical diurnal temperature change allows the old vines to push out less than 2 tons per acre of terrifically concentrated, small-cluster fruit — BB-sized berries of particularly high skin-to-juice ratio in 2012 — explaining both the luscious, juicy core and the fine, supple tannin structure of the 2012 Unus.

The 2012 Mendel Unus is brilliant purple/black to the rim. Explosive aromatically, featuring a sumptuous mix of crushed blackberry, black cherry, and black raspberry, tinged with sweet spice and new-wood cedar. Rich and terrifically compact on entry, with Pauillac high-tones and plenty of Oakville bombast, filled with crushed-black-fruit preserves, splashed with crème de cassis, finishing with superb dusty-tannin backbone, arguing eloquently for a decade or two of cellar slumber.

95 points from James Suckling, the longtime Wine Spectator bureau chief. 93 more from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. $52 on release. $33 today. The winery’s last 480 bottles have been set aside for WineAccess, courtesy of our Gramercy Tavern dining companion. Shipping included on 4.

• ABV 14.60%
• Enjoy right away
• % Red Blend