2015 Prince of Hearts

I was blown away by the wines I tasted with Claude and Katherine Blankiet, and their new winemaker, Graeme MacDonald. The late Denis Malbec, along with his wife, May-Britt, did so much to dial back some of the excesses of the estate's earlier wines. In just his first vintage, MacDonald has taken over a very delicate situation and put his personal stamp on the wines. One of MacDonald's first decisions was to bottle the 2015s, which were made by Malbec, about two months earlier than had been the norm previously. The shorter amount of time in barrel seems to give these wines quite a bit more fruit intensity and fewer oak influences. The 2016s, MacDonald's first vintage from start to finish, are superb and point to a bright future. MacDonald opted for a more reductive approach to winemaking, which means in essence exposing the wines to less air during vinification and aging. Ultimately, though, the credit for these wines lies with the Blankiets. They hired a young, emerging winemaker to take over from a veteran, and have let him have full reign in the vineyards and cellar. Very few owners are willing to take that level of risk, but as the saying goes "no guts, no glory." There is plenty of both guts and glory in these magnificent, statuesque wines from Blankiet.