2016 Mundus Bacillus Terrae 6000ml

97 POINTS

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2016 Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae is from a cold and rainy El Niño vintage that broke the mold of typical Mendoza weather. The grapes were picked a bit later and achieved a slow, perfect ripening while retaining very good freshness. They used 50% full clusters in this cooler year. The wine was pressed before it finished fermenting (in concrete), and the juice—without skins, pips or stems—finished fermenting like a white in the foudre. When I tasted the wines after bottling, this felt a bit dizzy, with the aromatics coming and going, sometimes showing a little open. But the wine settled in bottle, and the palate shows the core of acidity that lifts the wine and provides incredible freshness; the tannins are ultra refined, and there is great overall balance. Yields were lower, so they only filled some 3,360 bottles.

97 POINTS

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2016 Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae is from a cold and rainy El Niño vintage that broke the mold of typical Mendoza weather. The grapes were picked a bit later and achieved a slow, perfect ripening while retaining very good freshness. They used 50% full clusters in this cooler year. The wine was pressed before it finished fermenting (in concrete), and the juice—without skins, pips or stems—finished fermenting like a white in the foudre. When I tasted the wines after bottling, this felt a bit dizzy, with the aromatics coming and going, sometimes showing a little open. But the wine settled in bottle, and the palate shows the core of acidity that lifts the wine and provides incredible freshness; the tannins are ultra refined, and there is great overall balance. Yields were lower, so they only filled some 3,360 bottles.

97 POINTS

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2016 Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae is from a cold and rainy El Niño vintage that broke the mold of typical Mendoza weather. The grapes were picked a bit later and achieved a slow, perfect ripening while retaining very good freshness. They used 50% full clusters in this cooler year. The wine was pressed before it finished fermenting (in concrete), and the juice—without skins, pips or stems—finished fermenting like a white in the foudre. The two bottles I tasted were both showing a bit dizzy, possibly from the recent bottling, with the aromatics coming and going, sometimes showing a little open. But the palate shows the core of acidity that lifts the wine and provides incredible freshness; the tannins are ultra refined, and there is great overall balance. Yields were lower, so they filled some 3,360 bottles.

97 POINTS

Patricio Tapia - Decanter

In one of the coldest vintages of the last 30 years in Mendoza, the Adrianna Vineyard plot (just 1.4 hectares) produced crisp, red fruit in 2016. With 100% whole-bunch fermentation, this feels lush, juicy and full. A mass of ripe fruits that fill the mouth with freshness and tension, marked by a penetrating and firm acidity.

96 POINTS

Stephen Tanzer - Vinous

Saturated bright ruby. Aromas of brambly crushed blackberry and boysenberry, wild herbs and tropical bitter chocolate verge on exotic, but that's because this is one of Argentina's finest sites--and not just for Malbec. Thick and utterly seamless but with a weightless quality and razor-sharp definition that come from the limestone and calcaire -covered rock underneath a thin layer of marine deposits, not to mention the use of 50% whole clusters. Incredibly silky, concentrated wine with powerful saline minerality, a firm spine of mounting noble tannins and subtle chocolatey sweetness. Winemaker Alejandro Vigil describes this wine as "our purest Malbec expression for long aging." Adrianna was the first vineyard in Gualtallary, planted in 1992 and 1994 at a time when there was virtually no viticultural infrastructure here.