We admit it, we’ve got a soft spot for Robert Young Estate Winery. Why? Because their wines are so incredibly excellent. Today’s Robert Young Estate Winery 2014 Alexander Valley Sonoma County Malbec is probably the most interesting, most powerful, most delicious wine that we’ve tasted from this producer.

This wine is has a garnet core all the way to the edge where it is encircled by a hair-thin line of shocking fuchsia. There’s a lot going on here when you stick your nose in the glass. There are aromas of lime, rose, cedar, blueberry, and pluot. The palate has well-integrated flavors of cranberry and pomegranate with impressive spice notes of cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. This is a big wine with a heavy body and solid tannin with round, smooth edges. It strikes a good balance between delivering a powerful wine, yet still being very drinkable. If you haven’t had Choripán, it’s an Argentine classic sausage served on a baguette, drenched in chimichurri.

Our history with today’s winery dates back to our founding in 2007, as chronicled by Agent Red, here:

“I am very excited, as today marks my return to the very first winery that I visited after founding The Wine Spies. Back in 2007, I was a nervous young Agent - but I had resolved to kick down any winery door that I could, in search of great wines for our burgeoning cadre of Operatives. My inaugural visit with Robert Young Estate Winery was an eye-opening experience. I spent an entire afternoon with the winery, getting to know them and their absolutely fantastic wines. This visit set the tone for all of my future winery visits. I decided, then, that I would approach every subsequent visit with the same zeal. It became my mission to really delve into every wine and winery that we would feature. Nearly ten thousand wines later, me and my team remain as dedicated as ever to this mission.”