Zuccardi, Mendoza (Argentina) Tempranillo 2010

So much excellent Tempranillo is made in Spain that you might wonder why you’d need to consider a bottling from Argentina, but this wine from Zuccardi’s “Q” series offers an emphatic answer to that question.  It is a year older than the 2011 current releases of Malbec and Cabernet, and in my view is the best of the three wines, with more fully integrated oak allowing the fruit to show greater depth and dimension.  Fruit notes of dark cherries and black plums are accented with an appealingly spicy edge and just a subtle hint of smoky oak.