The peppery and spicy 2017 BenMarco Cabernet Sauvignon is a great expression of the variety in the Los Árboles part of Tunuyán in the Valle de Uco. There is great definition and balance, combining ripeness and power with elegance and finesse. It matured in second use French barriques for 11 months.

Bright ruby-red. Pure, high-pitched aromas of dark berries, black cherry, licorice, herbs and violet, plus a suggestion of white tobacco. A wonderfully elegant, mineral-tinged Cabernet midweight with subtle sweetness to its pristine dark fruit and tobacco flavors. Finishes with lush, smooth tannins, lovely length and a light touch. Susana Balbo told me that she looks more for polysaccharides than for coffee and chocolate torrefaction from her use of oak, toasting her barrels more slowly and at lower temperature. And she also makes her wine "relatively approachable" early but capable of aging, "by ripening the tannins on the vines." Incidentally, from 1999 through 2016 the Cabernet that Balbo bottled under her eponymous label came from this vineyard but when she began making the Susana Balbo Cabernet from vines in Gualtallary, this fruit was earmarked for the BenMarco bottling. (13.9% alcohol; from very stony soil; aged in second- and third-use oak)