CARO 2019
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Blend: 64% Malbec, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Fresh berries such as blackcurrant, violets, balsamic notes and tobacco combine in the nose. On the palate, it’s harmonious and refined, showcasing good freshness and extremely subtle, fine tannins. The cool summer of 2019 made this vintage one of the best in decades. Caro 2019 is one of the finest incarnations of this Bordeaux-inspired wine, a blend of 64% Malbec with 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in barrels for 18 months. Boasts significant ageing potential; at least 10 years.
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James Suckling
Chocolatey, cedary oak with truffles and tobacco here. While there is a lot of oak to flatter at this stage, it still delivers restraint, bearing and class. Keep smelling and you'll find scented, dark lead pencil, meaty spices, fine blackberries and a hint of tar. Ripe and rich, but nuanced, with more complexity that takes time to fully uncoil. Really silky, precise and polished tannins, loaded with some fruit sweetness on the palate, then extending to the finish that lasts a minute. Drinkable now, but better to hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The serious, balanced and quite complete 2019 Caro was made with 64% Malbec and 36% Cabernet Sauvignon and produced in a classical style. It's a wine with ripeness, Mendoza sun and Bordeaux elegance and subtleness. It feels harmonious and integrated, with 14.5% alcohol and good balancing freshness. It matured in French barriques and 4,200-liter oak foudre for 14 months, which was a shorter élevage and using larger-volume containers to achieve neatly integrated oak. It's complex, clean and elegant, and the palate reveals a velvety texture with juicy fruit and round tannins.
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Wine Spectator
Elegantly styled, with lovely notes of plumeria and cocoa nibs clinging to lush blackberry and cherry flavors, which are buoyed by fresh acidity midpalate and fan out around fine tannins. Ends with notes of slate and spice. Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now through 2032.
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CARO was born of the alliance between two wine cultures (French and Argentine), two noble grape varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec), and two renowned wine families, Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) and Nicolás Catena. Vignerons since the 19th century, these two powerful organizations have combined their deep knowledge of Mendoza's high altitude terroir and the art of winemaking to create a unique wine: CARO. Two noble grapes, two families, one dear and elegant wine.
The idea of forming a partnership between Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) and the Catena family was born in 1999. Initial enthusiasm quickly became a concrete plan to produce a single wine that would combine French and Argentine cultures and the two signature grapes of each producer, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The Catena family has produced wine for three generations. Consequently, it was able to draw on its vast knowledge of the high altitude terroirs of the Mendoza region as well as its passion for Malbec to find the best vineyards. DBR (Lafite) contributed its centuries-old skills in growing, vinifying and ageing great Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as its know-how in blending different grape varieties to produce one wine that is greater than the sum of its parts.
The vineyard locations for the Cabernet Sauvignon are 40% from a 20-year-old vineyard in Agrelo, a region 3,117 feet in elevation, and 10% from 30-year old vines in El Cepillo la Consulta, with an elevation of 3,773 feet. The vineyard locations for Malbec are 10% from a 12 year old vineyard in Tupungato at 4,593 feet elevation and also 40% from a 53-year-old vineyard in Vistalba, at 3,609 feet elevation. Throughout the season we monitor the vineyard technique, irrigation management and bud thinning to ensure low yields in balance with the canopy, good ventilation and illumination.
Previously CEO of Bodegas Argento S.A., Estate Manager Philippe Rolet began his career at Domaine William Fèvre, (France) before joining the Alta Vista Group in Mendoza where he was CEO and President. Aged 46, he holds a French Management degree and is today at the head of the French Honorary Consulate in Mendoza.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
By far the largest and best-known winemaking province in Argentina, Mendoza is responsible for over 70% of the country’s enological output. Set in the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains, the climate is dry and continental, presenting relatively few challenges for viticulturists during the growing season. Mendoza, divided into several distinctive sub-regions, including Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley, is the source of some of the country’s finest wines.
For many wine lovers, Mendoza is practically synonymous with Malbec. Originally a Bordelaise variety brought to Argentina by the French in the mid-1800s, here it found success and renown that it never knew in its homeland where a finicky climate gives mixed results. Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Pinot Noir are all widely planted here as well (and sometimes even blended with each other or Malbec). Mendoza's main white varieties include Chardonnay, Torrontés, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.