2012 Casarena Malbec Jamilla's Single Vineyard Perdriel Mendoza is sold out.

Sign up to receive notifications when wines from this producer become available

Wine Bottle
  • 94 pts Wine Advocate
    94 pts RPWA
  • Curated by unrivaled experts
  • Choose your delivery date
  • Temperature controlled shipping options
  • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

2012 Casarena Malbec Jamilla's Single Vineyard Perdriel Mendoza 750 ml

Sold Out

Sign up to receive notifications when wines from this producer become available.
  • Curated by unrivaled experts
  • Choose your delivery date
  • Temperature controlled shipping options
  • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

Biting the Bullet in Luján de Cuyo

As the economy continues to crumble in Argentina, even Mendoza’s top estates are obliged to face the music. By all reliable accounts, inflation rates have topped 2.5% per MONTH this year. Banks have stopped lending, tightening the noose around the necks of cash-strapped wineries.

At the same time, for those with the means to bite the bullet, the finest Malbecs, drawn from old-vine holdings in the foothills of the snow-covered Andes, have never been more extraordinary.

In the superb 2012 growing season, Achaval-Ferrer, Viña Cobos, Mendel, and Alta Vista turned out plush, powerfully built Malbecs. But on the scorecard of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, “Malbec of the Year” honors may well go to winemaker Bernardo Bossi Bonilla at Casarena.

When we first saw Casarena’s Jamilla’s Vineyard in the summer of 2012, we did a double-take. Located in the heart of Luján de Cuyo, these 40-year-old vines appear to be growing on a fine bed of light topsoil. But dig down with a small spade, and you discover subsoil strewn with chunks of white limestone — not unlike Burgundy. Then, 2 to 3 feet down, the limestone and clay gives way to boulders, helping to explain what The Wine Advocate describes Casarena’s Jamilla’s Vineyard Malbec as having a “tactile feeling akin to licking stones.”

We’ve been following Casarena’s progress since the owners — a partnership between a New York City investor and a Mendoza grape-farming family — called in “Flying Winemaker” Michel Rolland to oversee the cellar work. Rolland’s 2009s were stunning — purple/black to the rim, infused with textbook Rolland opulence, buttressed by dusty-tannin backbone. Then, in 2010, Michel passed the torch to Bonilla.

With the release of the 2012 Jamilla’s Vineyard, the uber-talented Bonilla seems to have set a new bar for Mendoza’s full-throttle, black-fruit Malbecs. Just as was the case with the more restrained 2011, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate went wild, publishing its second 94-point review in a row.

The good news first. $60 on release. Only $29 this morning. The bad? Just 480 bottles are up for grabs of what many — including The Wine Advocate — believe to be one of the most extraordinary single-vineyard Malbecs from the stellar 2012 vintage. Shipping included on 4.