Bodegas Caro ‘Caro’ Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec 2014 Mendoza, Argentina 75cl

Bodegas Caro is the fruit of a rare collaboration, founded in 1999 between Argentina’s Catena family and Domaines Barons de Rothschild, owners of Château Lafite. The name itself joins the two houses: CA for Catena, RO for Rothschild. Caro is the flagship of the venture.

The wine blends Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, deliberately bringing together Bordeaux’s noble grape and Argentina’s own. Catena contributed decades of knowledge of Mendoza’s high-altitude terroirs, while the Rothschild team brought a century of Cabernet craft and the art of blending. Fruit is drawn from high-altitude vineyards across the Mendoza region, from sites such as Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley.

The 2014 is now showing the benefits of bottle age. It was a cooler, later Mendoza vintage, a style that tends to give reds with fresher acidity and more classical proportions, and that restraint suits the Bordeaux side of this blend particularly well. A few years in bottle have softened its edges and drawn the two grapes together.

Expect a layered nose of blackcurrant, plum and violets, with cedar and fine spice from oak ageing. The palate is polished and firm, Cabernet lending structure and grip, Malbec adding plush dark fruit and roundness. Tannins are ripe and the finish long and savoury. Decant it an hour ahead and pair with roast beef, rack of lamb or a mature hard cheese.

This is a wine for a considered occasion, a bottle that shows what happens when Old World precision meets New World fruit. If you admire serious Bordeaux but are curious about the heights of Mendoza, Caro sits gracefully between the two and rewards the attention.