2013 Casarena Sinergy Bordeaux Blend Mendoza 750 ml

The Argentinian Vintage Stephen Tanzer’s Been Waiting For

Stephen Tanzer remains the world’s most eloquent critic — and its stingiest. Writing ever-restrained prose from his perch on the Upper East Side, Tanzer has tended to reserve his toughest judgments for the wines of Argentina. Most years, Tanzer’s ratings for Mendoza’s wine haven’t ventured outside the mid-to-high 80s range, while his colleagues poured on scores that were five points higher. We don’t call him “The Great Grade Deflator” for nothing.

But in 2013, something remarkable happened. Anyone who knows Tanzer knows that he has a strong predilection for longer, cooler growing seasons, especially in Washington, Argentina, and Napa Valley. Take excessive heat out of the equation in such regions, he argues, and you get extended ripening, higher natural acidity, finer tannins, and richer flavors — the kind of elegant refinement Tanzer has always preferred to brute power.

In the 2013, 2014, and 2015 vintages, Mother Nature dealt out three of a kind in Argentina. Instead of scorching desert heat, the country saw persistent low temperatures, allowing for long, slow ripening and superb balance. The shift in Tanzer’s tone was noticeable immediately. “Argentina is making a larger number of world-class wines than ever before,” the normally reserved New Yorker announced in his 2015 report. But it was in his 2016 report that Tanzer would drop a bomb, granting the 2013 vintage in Mendoza historic status: “On balance, this should turn out to be Mendoza’s finest and most complete vintage of the 21st century to date.”

So when we recently got a voicemail from Kenny O, gauging our interest in a batch of 2013 Casarenas, we couldn’t dial our importer friend back fast enough.

Casarena is set high in the foothills of the Andes, in the center of prized Luján de Cuyo. In 2007, Michel Rolland, the world’s most revered consulting oenologist, was invited to take a look at the land. With 100-pointers from Harlan Estate, Bryant Family, Bond, and Araujo under his belt, the last thing Rolland needed was another client. But one look at the sun-dappled high ground, the vineyard’s wide spacing, and 80-year-old ancient Cabernet Sauvignon vines, and he signed up on the spot.

Six years later, Casarena’s star had risen, becoming one of the country’s top producers. Rolland turned over winemaking duties to Bernardo Bossi Bonilla. In 2013, at Decanter Magazine's annual Argentine taste-off, a panel of Master of Wine judges awarded Bossi’s first release a Gold Medal and Best of Show honors. In the sensational 2013 growing season in Mendoza, the ancient-vines were brought to perfect physiological ripeness, creating a full-throttle, fabulously concentrated under-$20 Bordeaux blend.

Casarena’s tête de cuvée is a tiny bottling of an old-vine blend called “Sinergy Reserva” — a gushing black-fruit blend of 70% Malbec and 20% (85-year-old-vine) Cabernet Sauvignon, buttressed with muscular dollops of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.

Tanzer didn’t hold back, calling it “extremely fine-grained and suave on the palate” and “another remarkable value from this producer.” Then he lobbed on 91 points — as high as he ever goes for an under-$16 Mendoza red.

The 2013 Casarena Reserva Sinergy Bordeaux Blend Luján de Cuyo is purple/black to the edge. Lavish aromas of blackberry and plum, laced with chocolate. Ultra-rich on the attack, packed with crushed black fruits and tobacco, velour-like in texture, bracketed by the textbook ripe tannins.

$30 on release. $15.99 only from WineAccess. A knock-out bargain from a Mendoza growing season so superb, it even thawed the heart of America’s toughest wine critic. Don’t let this one get away.