Hervé Joyaux Fabre, owner and director of Fabre Montmayou, was born in Bordeaux, France to a family of wine negociants. When he arrived in Argentina in the early 90’s looking for opportunities to invest in vineyards and start a winery, he was impressed by the potential for Malbec in Mendoza, and shocked by the number of neglected top notch old vine vineyards available for purchase. At this time pulling out old vines and replanting with new higher yielding more predictable clones was all the rage. Hervé Fabre knew he needed to act immediately. Within months he purchased the first of what would be many old vine, high elevation vineyard sites under his control - An impeccable 37 acre spread in Vistalba planted with original rootstock Malbec vines in 1908. Shortly after, Herve built a Chateau style winery on the property and continued purchasing old vine parcels throughout the country. A Patagonian winery was constructed in the Rio Negro region ten years later. At present the family owns 217 acres of vineyard land in Mendoza (Vistalba, Compuertas, Tupungato) and 122 acres in Patagonia (Allen, General Roca). All wines are estate grown, farmed using traditional methods without the use of herbicides, and fermented with native yeasts.
A glass-coating opaque purple color, it has an alluring bouquet of smoke, toasty oak, incense, black cherry, and plum. Supple-textured, ripe, and concentrated, it has layers of sweet black fruit, ripe tannin, and excellent balance.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Grand Vin is the top wine, a blend of majority Malbec from Vistalba, with a little Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to add complexity. It is from an old Malbec vineyard planted in 1908, where 15 hectares were the heart and the beginning of the project. They select their best wines, vinified separately to create this cuvee. The wine is aged for 16-18 months in barrique, they like to do malolactic in the following spring to be able to work with the lees during the winter. This is again a serious, elegant red, with clean, delineated aromas, very good balance between fruit, spice and well-integrated oak, with a mineral sensation. The palate is medium to full-bodied. Powerful but sleek, very balanced and classy, with pungent flavors and well-integrated alcohol, this is a very elegant Argentine blend. It is drinkable now but should age well. I had the chance to taste the 1995 (first vintage was 1993) which was a powerful, ripe vintage and the wine has gained in complexity, with a classical bouquet, keeping the proportion.
