Charles & Charles C2 Northridge Vineyard Malbec 2015
Region: Columbia Valley, Washington
Variety: Red Wine
Rating: 92.0

The inaugural release of our single-vineyard Malbec comes entirely from the Northridge Vineyard which is the highest elevation spot in the Wahluke Slope. We co-fermented a little Cabernet Sauvignon with the Malbec to add some complexity & structure, something that I have experimented with in Argentina over the years & loved the results of. The wine was fermented with native yeast, with limited punch downs & remained on the skins for 50 days. We aged the wine a full 24 months in barrel on its original lees in a mix of 1-3 year old medium toast French oak. We bottled the wine without fining or filtration, leaving the richness & intensity of the wine to speak for itself. With this reductive type of winemaking, when you pull the cork on this wine, it will be encountering oxygen for the first time since it was put in the fermenter late October 2015. This incredibly focused Malbec leads with oodles of black fruit & spice layered over a present yet supple structure & a lingering thread of barrel toast & mocha. The blend this year is 77% Malbec & 23% Cabernet Sauvignon.