Wine Review - 2009 Santa Ana Malbec-Shiraz Reserve: Open Up Already....

This is a blend of Malbec and Shiraz from Bodegas Santa Ana in Argentina.  It is a typically dark wine from the Malbec and had that inky black look in the glass.  Nice looking wine.

We decanted the wine and gave it about 30 minutes before trying.  Right off the top it had a powerful nose, not an alcohol nose just a strong overall scent.  There was a lot of blackberry and cherry in the nose and it had a bit of spice that overlayed the powerful scents. 

The flavours of wine were again very big but not exactly in a good way.  It was definitely a tight wine.  It was just....acidic on the finish.  We thought that it would open up, but that process took a good 90 minutes before the nuances of oak and herbs would come through.

The wine then moved from what we would consider a 75% towards an 80%.  The opening of the wine made the tannins a lot more round and balanced.  The acidity that was not good before became a nice feature of the wine. 

If you were just to open and drink this wine, I would say many people would find it too bitter/acidic for their liking.  At $14 it might be worth a second round to see if our decanting adventure happens again.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Inky dark wine really nice in the glass but you cannot see through it.	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Tight powerful nose at first which settled to be a more round nose over time with cherry/blackberry notes.	4.0
Taste (0-10)	Powerful wine with good body but really needed time to open before the full fruitiness balanced with oak/spice would come through.	8.0
	Total:	16.0 / 20  (80.0)

Pretty good wine as long as you have some patience.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon