Cold and biting as the morning wind in Dublin was, it could not detract from warm welcome offered by Tom Lynch outside the traditional meeting spot of Dublin for strangers, Beweleys. Coffees poured, Tom opened on friendly terms, producing two bottles of his wine, from his bag as a gift. I wondered as to whether these would play up to the same standard as two Bronze medallist wines he and winemaker David Kingsbury have already been behind (The 2009 Malbec and 2010 Chardonnay for those of you who are unfamiliar with the wines won the aforementioned medals at the London wine fair. No small feat, not to mention this was their first entry). A friendly laugh and an acknowledgement the he has still yet to enter the wines, something he also adds he ought to do.
Founded in 2006 by Lynch's Late father Michael Lynch, the winery seems the finest of legacies to a man that Tom openly acknowledges had many fine tales to tell from his army days (Thus the El Commandate name to the wines). One of my favourites being the aiding of the Ch. Musar grapes en-route to make the world famous wine while on tour in Lebanon. Jim Barry's famous line "Sometimes it takes longer than a lifetime to do a lifetime's work… it's now up to my children." had stuck with me on reading the story of Michael's death and the thrusting of the family winery onto Tom, which Tom himself admits in his own happy way that this probably isn't the worst thing in the world to find on your doorstep. Asking the obvious question, is he enjoying his job is greeted with a positive response admitting he has loved every minute of it.
Finding it on his doorstep did however mean he was cast very quickly into the world of wine at top speed he revealed. Having quickly gone about clocking up time in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Tom quickly jumps to add that it a lot of credit is owed to their winemaker David Kingsbury who has been involved for quite sometime in the winery and has picked up 15 to 20 year experience being immersed in wine all around the globe. It is Dave's oenology knowledge that we use to source the grapes for the range Tom adds, noting that the winery has developed close ties to the locals of Mendoza. In a jest tom gives a colourful vision of the paddy ex-pats that have made Mendoza their home, describing as we laugh as the typical Irish Mafia stereotype, which personally I think for a wine named El Commandate is fantastic.
Chatting more about his father, I probe as to where Tom has envisaged the range going. A basic expansion seems to be on the cards, with hope for opening up some new markets for the range and a hope that a reserve range could be achieved, hesitant that I may go off on a creative spree and declare the release of this Tom adds, this is all aspirational. He does reveal that he has been trying to get the range to the UK and Sweden and it seems that his warm manner is working and he seems to have been met with some mild success.
In terms of extra varietal, he warms me up by saying the hallowed words of Cabernet Franc, but the traditional Argentinian grapes seem to pull heart strings for Tom, saying he would love to explore the possibility of Torrontes and Bonarda additions to the range.
Pulling him back to the idea of the reserve range, I asked would he attempt to use the range as a tribute to his father. Agreeing on the idea, he noted if he could managed to his desire would be to create a wine that embodied his fathers robust and rich personality, a great tribute .
Finishing our chat on an odd note I asked what Tom's oddest twitter spam follower had been. The Answer priceless: An Indian Rent Boy.
So without further Adue here are the wines
El Commandate, Chardonnay 2010
Clean, pale hue, with a gold body and a good intensity of about medium.
El Commandate, Malbec 2010
We cheekily had tipped into the 2009 vintage before trying the 2010 just to see how the wine had developed and to test Toms own claim that the 2010 vintage was showing much more potential behind it than the previous one.
Taste:
Chocolate, plum, a medium body with good tannic structure giving way to darker fruits of Fig and blackberry, the palate is fantastic however the finish is slightly short and this is the only fall down of the wine. On a bonus however the fruit flavours intensify with a tibble of food for which we selected unsurprisingly some steak, the wine really craves food and rewards those that feed themselves and the wines craving..
In terms of extra varietal, he warms me up by saying the hallowed words of Cabernet Franc, but the traditional Argentinian grapes seem to pull heart strings for Tom, saying he would love to explore the possibility of Torrontes and Bonarda additions to the range.
Pulling him back to the idea of the reserve range, I asked would he attempt to use the range as a tribute to his father. Agreeing on the idea, he noted if he could managed to his desire would be to create a wine that embodied his fathers robust and rich personality, a great tribute .
Finishing our chat on an odd note I asked what Tom's oddest twitter spam follower had been. The Answer priceless: An Indian Rent Boy.
So without further Adue here are the wines
El Commandate, Chardonnay 2010
Appearance:
Clean, pale hue, with a gold body and a good intensity of about medium.
Nose:
Pronounced, with tropical fruit, intense notes of melon, peach, pear drops and slightly mineral note, some notes notes of a juicy apple
Pronounced, with tropical fruit, intense notes of melon, peach, pear drops and slightly mineral note, some notes notes of a juicy apple
Taste:
Some residual sugar is noticeable. A medium body, light acidity, with melon and apple notes taking most of the palate, hints of spice offer some life to the wine, while at the same time apple notes become more and more prevalent.
Comments:
A nice pleasant wine, ideal to introduce people to wine, lots of potential for the next vintage, overall for it's price point it offers happy drinking. A good wine. with the story behind these wine the drinking instantly becomes more enjoyable as the history of El Commandate Michael Lynch, flowing from the mouths of those acquainted with him.
Price:
Price:
€11.95 (Corkscrew Wine Merchants)
Score:
82 (B)
Value:
3.5
El Commandate, Malbec 2010
We cheekily had tipped into the 2009 vintage before trying the 2010 just to see how the wine had developed and to test Toms own claim that the 2010 vintage was showing much more potential behind it than the previous one.
Appearance:
Clean, with a deep purple hue to the wine, even at the level of appearance the wine seems much more serious than the 2009 counterpart .
Nose:
A clean nose which is instantly more interesting and structured than 2009. Offering up more of the elegant fruits which Tom noted they had tried to achieve. Notes of smoked meats and plum bring up the initial assault on the nose, the wine, opens slowly offering up red fruits that show again more structure than the previous embodiment. Fig comes soon followed by cheddar and cedar box. A nice and light style of Mablec.
A clean nose which is instantly more interesting and structured than 2009. Offering up more of the elegant fruits which Tom noted they had tried to achieve. Notes of smoked meats and plum bring up the initial assault on the nose, the wine, opens slowly offering up red fruits that show again more structure than the previous embodiment. Fig comes soon followed by cheddar and cedar box. A nice and light style of Mablec.
Taste:Chocolate, plum, a medium body with good tannic structure giving way to darker fruits of Fig and blackberry, the palate is fantastic however the finish is slightly short and this is the only fall down of the wine. On a bonus however the fruit flavours intensify with a tibble of food for which we selected unsurprisingly some steak, the wine really craves food and rewards those that feed themselves and the wines craving..
Comments:
This is a good wine, with some potential for age. However what is more exciting about this range is the staggering jump in quality. The guys really have tweaked the wine in a way that has made it fit the bill. I am really excited for the next vintage to see if they can continue the improving quality of the wines. This is a great food wine and really I advise some food for them, it shows the wine in its best light. We tried it with some Steak and the wine really came into its own, bringing all the primary fruit to the fore.
Price:
€11.95 (Corkscrew Wine Merchants)
Score:
87 (B+)
Value:
3.5
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