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Gonzales Wine Company 2020 Malbec
Elevating those that are overlooked
She was backpacking her way through Mendoza, Argentina, when Cristina Gonzales found her passion for wine. It was a perfect bottle of Malbec alongside an Argentinian steak that sparked a realization that wine would be her future.
She joined the wine industry in 2006 and quickly gained hands-on experience working harvests in California, Oregon, Tasmania, and Australia. As a winemaker, she celebrates the unusual, and the rare, lifting up unheralded grapes that others might overlook.
Cristina comes from a long line of farm workers who tended fields with their hands. She is the granddaughter of migrant farm workers from Texas, who found their way to Wisconsin to pick cherries in search of a better life.
Consequently, she is just as passionate about empowering vineyard workers in Oregon – without whom we would not have Oregon wine.
She’s now on the board of the nonprofit AHIVOY, an organization that seeks to help vineyard workers gain the education and support they need to advance in the wine industry.
Cellar 503 Tasting Notes
Gonzales Wine Company, Portland, Oregon
2020 Malbec
Malbec was once the most planted grape in Bordeaux, but today it makes up only a small portion of France’s production and is usually blended with Cabernet Sauvignon in the classic “Bordeaux blend”.
Now, most production in the world comes from Argentina, but Oregon’s Rogue Valley is starting to make a name for itself for producing extraordinary Malbec.
You’d expect a wine like this to be big, intense, and tannic. But with only 12.7% alcohol, this is a more refined version of Malbec. It was co-fermented with a hint of Tinto Cão, the Portuguese grape found most commonly in ruby port.
At first, you will be greeted with aromas of baking spices and lavender. You’ll pick up luscious and rich flavors of blueberries and persimmon, closing with an elegant velvety finish.
Cristina suggests that you savor this bottle with something rich on a special day — truffles, foie gras, Russian dumplings with caviar, or Mexican albondigas soup.
A Cellar 503 selection in May 2023, Women In Wine Rogue Valley | Malbec
