The 2019 vintage dominates our list of Top 100 Wines of Argentina 2022, with 41 bottles from the year proving that intense, fresh and well-structured reds with silky tannins is the Andean combination we’ve all been waiting for. And if there was ever a Ground Zero for layered and opulent malbecs, Mendoza is it. Together, the vintage, varietal and place gave us our Argentine Wine of the Year: the Susana Balbo Wines Malbec Paraje Altamira Nosotros Single Vineyard Nómade 2019.
This impressive offering, born of a dry and cool growing season, is the best representative of the prodigious success of Argentine malbecs from 2019. And at an international retail price of around $120, it’s a premium yet reasonable buy for a 99-point Argentine malbec – one whose typical, fleshy dark fruit you could enjoy immediately or keep for 20 years.
Balbo and her team select their best-performing single vineyard every year to bottle their flagship Nosotros Nomade wine. For 2019, it was Paraje Altamira, a site recognized by Argentina’s National Viticulture Institute in 2013 as one of the country’s first Geographical Indications (GIs) – a category in Argentina’s denomination of origin appellation system. And it was Paraje Altamira’s unique geological and climatic characteristics in the Andean foothills that told the story behind this “nomad” malbec and took it to another level.
“It is one of our best harvests over the last 20 years,” said Gustavo Bertagna, Susana Balbo’s winemaking manager, who compared 2019 to 2013 – another cold and dry vintage where they bottled the Nosotros Nomade from their even higher and cooler Gualtallary vineyard stie.
“2013, 2016, and 2019 were among the best vintages we had,” Balbo said during a Zoom vertical tasting earlier this year, while also acknowledging that they began a style transition in 2010, with fine-tuning happening in successive vintages. “Before, we used to have 200 percent oak, which is not what it is today.”
The 2019 Nosotros Nomade was fermented in 6,500-liter casks and aged 16 months in French barrels, of which 80 percent were new. It reflects this transition in an eclectic and poised style, showing complexity, refinement and layers with minty, mineral blueberries, refined cocoa powder and a delicate balsamic savoriness to the dark fruit. It’s a medium- to full-bodied malbec that is juicy, round, nicely plush and very persistent.
READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF ARGENTINA 2021
TASTING CATENA ZAPATA: Laura Catena and Alejandro Vigil discuss Catena Zapata’s newest releases, including our No. 2 wine, the White Bones 2020.
In second place on our Top 100 list is one of our all-time favorite chardonnays from the Southern Hemisphere – the Catena Zapata Chardonnay Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard White Bones 2020, which delivers consistent quality year after year from a 2.5-hectare parcel rich in crumbled calcium carbonate and fossils in the high-altitude Adrianna Vineyard.
What is exciting about White Bones is its expressive, aromatic delivery of chardonnay despite its chalky, oyster-shell minerality and fine austerity.
“For me, 2020 is one of the best vintages in the last 20 years,” said Alejandro Vigil, the technical director of Catena Zapata. “The temperature was very low … at the end of the ripening, and it was real, real dry,” with only two periods of rain in February and March, he said. “But it was perfect – a very, very good year.”
Another chardonnay that found its way into our Top 10, but which represents better value, is the Trapiche Chardonnay Gualtallary Valle de Uco Terroir Series Finca el Tomillo 2020. It’s a broader and flintier expression of the grape from the cool Gualtallary region, with fantastic tension and concentration.
TERROIR SPEAKS: Marcelo Belmonte of Trapiche on their Terroir series of wines.
Finca Bella Vista, in Perdriel, Mendoza, is is one of the single vineyards of Achaval Ferrer, which placed three wines on our Argentina Top 100 list.
BOOMING DIVERSITY
The nine chardonnays on the list this year represent a booming diversity of the grape coming from different terroirs in Argentina. In Patagonia, the Chacra Chardonnay Patagonia 2021 (No. 16) is on par with their finest pinots, yet again demonstrating Patagonia’s potential for Burgundian varieties. Even farther south in Chubut, Otronia makes wines at one of the most extreme southerly latitudes in the world, below the 45th parallel. We were highly impressed with their Otronia Chardonnay Patagonia Block III & VI 2019 (No. 82) for its flinty and mouth-watering expression, delivering great intensity, texture and minerality.
In Mendoza, the Zuccardi Chardonnay Valle de Uco San Pablo Fósil 2021 (No. 27) is a relatively more recent addition to Sebastian Zuccardi’s cerebral profile of high-altitude wines. This chardonnay comes from one of the high points of the Uco Valley, at over 1400 meters in altitude in San Pablo – a new Geographical Indication recognized in 2019 after a concerted effort by Zuccardi, Bodegas Salentein and Tapiz. It delivers a focused nose with chalky and limey green fruit and great purity. Two other Zuccardi wines are also on the list, including the superbly intellectual Zuccardi Malbec Valle de Uco Paraje Altamira Finca Piedra Infinita 2019 (No. 4), which is glossy and brooding yet perfumed, and extremely fine with satin-like tannins and confident fruit, without the need for any oak support to flatter it.
One of the most enticingly spicy and gastronomic malbecs this year comes from the town of Cachí, which sits at an altitude of 2,400 meters in the hard-to-reach Salta wine region. Here, the winemakers Alejandro Senajovich, Diana Bellincioni and Jeff Mausbach put their minds together to deliver a stunning bottle for their project Almacen de la Quebrada. The peppery, spicy and expressive Almacén de la Quebrada Cachí 2019 is a unique malbec that might remind you of a spicy syrah. The No. 9 wine on our list has a mind-blowing character that almost mirrors the landscape, with lots of dried herbs, lavender and peppercorn spices.
READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF THE WORLD 2022 AND OUR WINE OF THE YEAR
In Mendoza, Uco’s new popular vineyard destination, Los Chacayes, also gives the exotic herbs and spiciness from malbec a run. “In the past, we didn’t use to talk about spices for malbec. But Chacayes has [aromas of] rosemary, harissa … and sometimes black pepper and cassis,” said Marcos Fernandez, the winemaking director of Terrazas de los Andes. His pure, tense and chalky Terrazas de los Andes Malbec Los Chacayes Valle de Uco Lican Parcel N 12S 2019 (No. 18) is a step up from the past vintages with great depth and purity, plus a chalky, mineral texture.
Another 2019 malbec in the top 10 is the Viña Cobos Malbec Mendoza Cobos 2019 (No. 7), our only 100-point wine from Argentina this year. It is an archetypical example of the fantastic Mendoza malbec from such a stellar vintage, of which winemaker Paul Hobbs believes malbec was the biggest beneficiary. But Hobbs also has a lot of faith in Mendoza’s cabernet sauvignon, too, even though it is “not as forgiving as malbec.” But when it is well-matched to the terroir, the potential of Mendoza cabernets, including cabernet franc, is unfathomable.
A few cabernet and malbec blends are at the top of the list this year, including the refined, spicy and well-rounded Cheval des Andes Mendoza 2019 (No. 6), which is a 50 percent malbec and 50 percent cabernet sauvignon blend that will age beautifully.
The Catena Zapata Mendoza Nicolas Catena Zapata 2019 (No. 19) is a blend of 42 percent cabernet sauvignon, 30 percent malbec and 28 percent cabernet franc, and is tribute to Bordeaux’s 19th-century blends, according to Laura Catena – a time when more malbec was planted in Medoc than cabernet sauvignon. The cabernet franc went into the 2019 mix to add freshness, elegance and linearity to the weight and sweet fruit of malbec.
DON’T FORGET THE PINOTS
There are also six pinot noirs on this year’s Top 100 Wines of Argentina list, coming from some of the most celebrated producers in Mendoza and Patagonia. The top-ranked pinot noir, the Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Cincuenta y Cinco 2021 (No. 5), is a perfumed yet bright and succulent rendition full of rose petal, citrus and red-berry fruit. It’s also a great value buy.
In one of Mendoza’s coolest areas, Gualtallary Alto, the Domaine Nico Pinot Noir Valle de Uco Soeur et Freres Le Paradis 2020 (No. 10) blew us away with its nuanced complexity, tension and transparency. It is one of the most expensive wines on the list, coming from a 1.1-hectare vineyard planted in 2011 with Dijon clone 667, but the “wow” factor here, once again, landed it in our top 10, delivering an incredibly complex and scented pinot noir from Mendoza with clarity, intensity and an almost “al dente” texture.
Eighty-three reds and 17 whites are featured in this year’s Top 100 list. Close to a third of the wines retail for under $40 a bottle (according to the average price of current international offerings from Wine Searcher), making for an overall consumer-friendly reference list that highlights value alongside quality, availability and the “wow factor” of each wine. However, there have been price increases in some of Argentina’s premium wines, and their cost is sometimes now on par with fine Bordeaux.
Still, there is little doubt that Argentina remains a deep well of great value offerings, where you can often spend less while drinking some of the best wines in the world.
– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor
Note: You can sort the wines below by vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.
