2012 L'Ecole No. 41 Seven Hills Estate Malbec

Ahh...Sunday evening, time to get my amateur chef hat out and make a kick butt dinner!  And of course with a kick butt dinner you need to have a kick butt bottle of wine, and boy do we have one tonight, the 2012 L'Ecole No. 41 Seven Hills Estate Malbec, made from the fruit of block 34 of the vineyard, which is usually blended to make one of my favorites, the Estate Perigee, but for the 2012 vintage we get the treat of some Malbec on it's own.

The wine is a deep, brooding inky purple in the glass, with some bright ruby along the edges.  The nose is classic Malbec, very earthy, with notes of ripe black fruit overlaid with some tobacco leaf, smoky oak, and some lovely spices.  The taste is a burst of ripe fruit up front, with some plum, blackberry and cherry that smoothly transitions to some wonderful earthy mineral notes midpalate, dusty limestone and basalt.  The finish is again classic, with some lovely peppery spice notes that play perfectly with the fine grained tannins, making for a luscious and very smooth, exceptionally dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, it's really simply fabulous, and keep in mind that I've not been the biggest fan of Malbec, but this one sure is a treat.  Tonight, I've paired it with perhaps the perfect dinner for such an earthy and spicy wine, a nice rare grilled prime sirloin on a bed of baby kale tossed with a bit of aged white balsamic, along with homemade truffle mac & cheese and some steamed asparagus.  This wine is just ideal with the the earthiness of the truffles and the hearty flavors of steak, cheers!