“The level of precision here is amazing; they might very well be the finest producer in Argentina.” – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

It’s MALBEC Friday!

But make it next level, stack the scores… and then drop it down to a rock-bottom price, best anywhere.

98 points Wine Advocate plus a couple of 97s. One helluva wine for $69. And with just a handful of cases to share, only our savviest (and quickest) serious red wine connoisseurs will get a shot at it.

This is what we expect from Zuccardi. Named “New World Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast in 2022, they are in a league of their own.

Vinous explains “Zuccardi’s journey is a summation of the contemporary Argentine wine scene. Today, the estate makes some of the most interesting reds… The Zuccardis were also champions of new soil-focused approaches, of which their parcel wines are excellent examples. Between 2008 and 2022 they created an extremely distinguished technical team whose creativity is matched by their execution. During that period the first Zuccardi Aluvional appeared… a paradigm that represents the new Argentina; one that pushes the boundaries with well-defined concepts and tangible results.”

And they’re OBSESSED with terroir.

According to the winery, Aluvional is “a selection of the best soils of alluvial origin in the Uco Valley, in Mendoza. The particularities of each plot are made known through the variety that best represents the region: Malbec. The erosive force of these alluviums; generated by melting glaciers and descending water, ice, and rocks with brutal force can be seen in soils with the presence of rocks of great magnitude; rounded edges, and great heterogeneity. In the elaboration of Zuccardi Aluvional, the aim is to highlight the uniqueness and typicity of each terroir.”

This obsession comes through in the wine loud and clear. It’s dark, brooding, and delivers a flavor-savory GOLLUP of fruit! Draped floor to ceiling in a rich gradient of black and blues. Blueberries, blackberries, and ripe plums. Black pepper, wet stones, and fresh cedar. Gorgeous violet notes too. Seamless, long, and intellectually satisfying, and if you’re lucky enough to get one please share with others. Or just keep it for yourself. Your call!

Just make sure you get some first. Near-perfect Malbec at this price is not a common sight…

98 Points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate “The Zuccardi family has eight vineyards in the Valle de Uco; they are planting 35 hectares of white in San Pablo, one of the best places for whites for them, and they keep buying more land and vineyards there, working mostly organically, but they have to find a solution for the ants. So, there’s no certification in any of the wines there; it’s on the way - no herbicides or any systemic treatments - but right now they cannot certify the vineyard. They have around 300 hectares of vines planted in smaller (40- to 50-hectare) vineyards and produce 1.7 million bottles. But they focus on vineyard work in Altamira, San Pablo and Gualtallary. They are gradually abandoning the 500-liter barrels and moving more to large oak foudres of 2,500 and 5,000 liters. Polígonos are village wines, Aluvional are lieu-dit (paraje) wines, and then there are the single vineyard wines - and even sub plots! For Sebastián Zuccardi, 2019 and 2022 have been excellent and cooler years, 2019 being the best. The wines are phenomenal, the work they do is impressive, and they are at the very top of the pyramid of the quality producers from Argentina. The level of precision here is amazing; they might very well be the finest producer in Argentina at the moment. The 2019 Aluvional Gualtallary comes from the section people call Monasterio, although the official division of subzones has not yet been approved. This is always the wildest (Sebastián Zuccardi calls it Wildtallary…), with an explosive nose of wild herbs and flowers, thyme, rockrose and lavender, interwoven with violets and coupled with a laced texture with very fine-grained, chalky tannins, showcasing what the zone can do and why it was made famous. They harvest by soil, because it’s not all the same, and they look for mid-palate depth using parts where they have caliche stones but also a little bit of clay, just bellow the hills (los cerros). Their main work here is to avoid exuberance and give it restraint, and it comes through as refined and slender; if you let the grapes ripen too much, you can have heavier aromas reminiscent of black olives, of which there’s nothing here. They do a gentler second half of the fermentation, just wetting the cap with buckets (by hand) and avoiding cold fermentations. It seems to work wonders… Simply superb, this is super elegant but in an austere, tight and precise way. 5,500 bottles were filled in June 2020. Drink 2023-2035.”

97 Points – Descorchados “In this Malbec, the grapes that Zuccardi buys in Gualtallary play a role and make up 60% of this blend. The rest come from their own vineyards, all more than 1,400 meters above sea level in the north of the Uco Valley. The cool season helped underscore the ideas that you might have about the malbec from this area—the freshness, the verticality of the tannins, the flowers, the bright energy of a mountain wine, the sensation that there’s something there beyond the fruit, something that the Andes adds in between. With no contact with oak—it was fermented with native yeasts in concrete, and then aged in those same vessels—this Aluvional goes beyond the idea of the variety and enters into a sense of place. A brilliant wine.”

97 Points – James Suckling “Deep, complex and scented nose with layers and nuance. Embryonic. Some dried blue flowers, crushed stones, fresh blueberries and blackberries with dried herbs and a black-pepper edge. Broad, medium-to-full-bodied red, but not heavy, filled with tons of chalky tannins that melt into the fruit. Quite assertive in the end, though. Powerful, long and mineral. Better after 2025.”