82) for its flinty and mouth-watering expression, delivering great intensity, texture and minerality. We were highly impressed with their Otronia Chardonnay Patagonia Block III & VI 2019 (No. Even farther south in Chubut, Otronia makes wines at one of the most extreme southerly latitudes in the world, below the 45th parallel. 16) is on par with their finest pinots, yet again demonstrating Patagonia’s potential for Burgundian varieties. In Patagonia, the Chacra Chardonnay Patagonia 2021 (No. The nine chardonnays on the list this year represent a booming diversity of the grape coming from different terroirs in Argentina. READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF ARGENTINA 2021 It’s a medium- to full-bodied malbec that is juicy, round, nicely plush and very persistent. 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. The 2019 Nosotros Nomade was fermented in 6,500-liter casks and aged 16 months in French barrels, of which 80 percent were new. “Before, we used to have 200 percent oak, which is not what it is today.” “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. “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. 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. 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 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.īalbo and her team select their best-performing single vineyard every year to bottle their flagship Nosotros Nomade wine. This impressive offering, born of a dry and cool growing season, is the best representative of the prodigious success of Argentine malbecs from 2019. 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. And if there was ever a Ground Zero for layered and opulent malbecs, Mendoza is it. Lower-alcohol and higher-acidity wines dominate in another cool, wet vintage, with dramatically lower yields in Mendoza and Salta.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.
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