Скачать или смотреть Gran Enemigo 2015 El Cepillo Cabernet Franc, San Carlos, Uco Valley Argentina | Cab Franc Chronicles

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Analysis and commentary of the El Enemigo, 2015 Gran Enemigo "El Cepillo" Cabernet Franc, Pampa El Cepillo, San Carlos, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina.

El Enemigo was established in 2008 by legendary winemaker and agronomist Alejandro Vigil and Argentine wine royalty Adrianna Catena.

If there had to be a flag-bearer for Cabernet Franc in Argentina, it would undoubtedly be Alejandro Vigil. El Enemigo produces not one, not two, but FIVE Cabernet Francs as part of their range. In addition to their entry level wine, they produce 4 single vineyard, super-premium Cabernet Francs as part of the Gran Enemigo range. The most famous of these is the bottling from Gualtallary, but for this video I looked at the El Cepillo bottling from the San Carlos region.

The Uco Valley can be divided into 3 sub-regions (from north to south): Tupungato, Tunuyán and San Carlos. San Carlos is the furthest south and it is the smallest, with about 8700ha under vine, and it is a little bit more removed from the other two regions.

San Carlos can be further divided into 7 sub-regions, but only two of these regions have GI status: Paraje Altamira and Pampa El Cepillo.

The Pampa El Cepillo Indicación Geográfica was established in 2019 based on climate and geological data, which is rare as most GIs/IGs have been established based on political borders. We are in the southern part of San Carlos and at an average elevation of 1100m. This is one of the coldest sub-regions in the Uco Valley. So cold that the region can experience frost.

The vineyard where this wine is coming from is about 9ha in size and the vines were planted in the mid-1990s at a relatively high density, about 10,000 to 12,000 vines per hectare. Drip irrigation is installed in the vineyard. And here the soil are colluvium, which are soils formed by eroded materials deposited via gravity. Here these soils are a silty-sand, with marine limestone stones in the subsoil.

For the winemaking, the fruit was harvested in 5 passes over a 6 week period. Each of these lots were fermented individually in older oak barrels. The fruit underwent a 5-day cold soak, fermentation was 30% whole cluster and the total time on skins is about 23 days on average. The assemblage is made after fermentation and aging of the final blend is in 100-year-old oak foudres for about 15 months.

0:00 Intro/Overview
0:39 Alejandro Vigil - Argentina's Cab Franc flag-bearer
1:20 Regions of the Uco Valley
1:40 San Carlos overview
2:31 Pampa El Cepillo IG overview
3:34 Vineyard selection
3:59 Soils!
4:42 Winemaking
5:58 Gran Enemigo range
6:24 High-altitude Cabernet Franc
6:53 Tasting notes

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Website in progress with a full write up and tons more content.
Originally posted to Instagram January 23, 2022.

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Key wine facts below:

Producer: El Enemigo
Region: Uco Valley (Mendoza)
District: San Carlos
IG: Pampa El Cepillo
Vineyard: El Cepillo
Altitude: ~1100m
Assemblage: 85% Cabernet Franc, 15% Malbec
Soil: Colluvium (sand-silt) w/ marine limestone stones
Alcohol: 13.7%

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