21. H/H Estates 2010 GW Smith Malbec, Horse Heaven Hills, $38
Owner Mike Andrews names the reserve wines for his Coyote Canyon Wines as a tribute to his ancestors, and this Malbec is a great legacy. It flashes aromas and flavors of blueberry, vanilla, tar, black licorice, black pepper and dark chocolate. This is a young wine that is still evolving and will reward a couple of years of patience.
Production: 113 cases
Alcohol: 14.3%
Lists such as this are nice. But I content that wines with a production of less then 250 cases should not be included. There are wines here with microscopic production levels. That just amounts to teasing the vast majority of the readers.
Jim,
A valid point. I would contend that highlighting even small-production wines gives wine lovers an idea about what wineries to visit or wines to try.
Additionally, this is a bit of a slippery slope. Do we also exclude wines based on price point because they are accessible primarily to those only able to afford them?
We went into this with the thought of picking out the very best wines we tasted in 2013. During the process, we didn’t look at price point or production level. As a result, we also ended up with a lot of wines in which tens of thousands of cases were produced (in addition to small-production wines).