RELEASE THE KAIKEN!!!

But first, let’s turn our attention to the sommeliers.

Not the slurpy, cravat-wearing kind.

The people who pour wine for a living, blind, no labels, no agenda.

The Sommelier Wine Awards named Kaiken “New World Producer of the Year” and called their 2021 lineup “complex, inviting and delicious.” Wine Spectator put Kaiken’s 2021 in their Top 100…

And this wine? Fortified with a wall of 94s from three publications. Anchored by James Suckling at 95 points who wrote: “Full-bodied, flavorful and long. Powerful.”

🕵️‍♀️ Hmmmm OVER HALF OFF. Just $35…yes let that sink in while you read on…

This is not your ordinary Malbec. The fruit comes from the oldest alluvial fan in Los Chacayes, rooted at 4,100 feet in calcium carbonate-rich ancient soils. Fermented with wild yeasts. Aged 12 months on the lees in concrete. Zero oak. What you taste is pure site and varietal expression, nothing else.

Gen X??? Boomers??? You remember Montes??!? Chile’s most celebrated estate from the mid-90s through the mid-2000s. Wall-to-wall 95+ scores. Wine & Spirits Winery of the Year. That was ALL Aurelio Montes Sr.

In 1988 he co-founded Viña Montes, defied conventional wisdom by planting on steep hillsides nobody believed in, and helped put South American wine on the world map. Then in 2002 curiosity took him across the Andes. He saw something in Mendoza nobody else had acted on yet and founded Kaiken. That drive to find the next great terroir never stopped. Twenty-plus years later he’s still consulting on Kaiken’s most ambitious project: the Aventura series. This wine has his fingerprints all over it.

The man running the cellar now, Gustavo Hörmann; spent over a decade as Head Winemaker at Viña Montes Chile under Montes Sr. before crossing the Andes to run Kaiken in 2016. Day-to-day on Aventura is Juan Pablo Solís, Head Winemaker, from a multi-generational Argentine winemaking family, focused entirely on letting this terroir speak without interference.

Transporting you to what we experienced.., cuz it really was special!! Deep ruby red with violet flickers at the rim. Swirl it and you get a rush of crushed violet petals, wild lavender, and something stony and electric underneath. Dark plum skin, wet chalk, a cool mineral tension that we rarely see at a compelling price of $35. We usually see that on wines like the Mai, which are much more expensive.

On the palate? BUCKLE UP! The entry is deceptively silky, almost gentle, then the tannins arrive. Grainy, grippy, precise. Not aggressive, but PURPOSEFUL. The acidity snaps everything to attention. Mid-palate delivers dark fruit concentration and chalky mineral depth, with a freshness that keeps looping back before you can catch your breath. The finish is long. Embarrassingly long. You put the glass down and it’s STILL TALKING.

We tasted this as a team. Someone said “wait, is this really $35?” We checked. Three times. Yeah. It really is.

95 Points - James Suckling ”A floral nose with plenty of peppercorn spice to the dark fruit. Fleshy and broad on the palate with plenty of chalky tannins. Full-bodied, flavorful and long. Powerful, but caressing and melted. Drink or hold. Screw cap.”

94 Points - Tim Atkin MW ”Ripe with a beautiful combination of graphite and wildflowers. Racy acidity kicks the sweeter fruit into place, long and layered with reactive tannins. Full of life with lovely juiciness and a complex, savoury finish.”

94 Points - Descorchados ”A powerful malbec full of strength and with that austere, almost monolithic character of some of the reds from Los Chacayes, a mountain desert in the Uco Valley. The aromas and flavors recall sweet black fruits with pronounced ripeness, muscular tannins, and a finish rich in herbs and flowers. This malbec comes from the northern sector of the Kaiken vineyard in Los Chacayes, rich in alluvial soils with stones rounded by river erosion and that also contain a rich proportion of calcium carbonate.”

94 Points - Decanter World Wine Awards ”Characterful and expressive nose of chocolate, spicy dark cherries, crushed black pepper, tobacco leaves and mineral nuances. Juicy and intense.”