2018 Zuccardi Vinos De Montana Poligonos del Valle de Uco Malbec Paraje Altamira Mendoza 750 ml

“Try a stone.” 

We looked up at Sebastián Zuccardi, who was holding out a round white rock. Since we didn’t yet have one of his game-changing Malbecs in hand, we took it—then we touched our tongue to the rock. The zip of millions of years ricocheted across our mouths. “Taste that?” he said, obviously pleased. “Why would I want to cover all that magic with oak?” 

Fifteen minutes later, we were immersed in Sebastián’s beautifully chiseled 93-point 2018 Zuccardi Vinos De Montaña Poligonos del Valle de Uco Malbec Paraje Altamira. With its brooding mélange of blackberry fruit, licorice, and black olives matched with its Rhône-like accents of tar, wild game, and pepper spice, the Poligonos shows off Zuccardi’s striking terroir in a layered and complex red that finishes with dazzling mineral cut. 

This red is a statement that Argentina is now a first stop for those who want elegant complexity and terroir expression that rivals the best of the Old World—and that the country’s value is still front and center. This wine earned stunning, dual 93-point scores from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and Wine Enthusiast, and it’s just $28.

For this kind of terroir, this kind of quality, and this kind of critical adoration, you can’t beat it.

Any visitor to Zuccardi’s outpost 3,600 feet above sea level is immediately struck by the Andes mountains, towering over the vineyards in startlingly near distance. It’s hard to imagine a more spectacularly dramatic wine country backdrop (it just doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world). And no one captures the evocative terroir like Sebastián Zuccardi.

According to the Wine Advocate, “Zuccardi is clearly among the top wineries of the country—and improving each year.” That’s all thanks to Sebastián, who is at the forefront of a renegade crew who have been called the “cement heads,“ for eschewing new oak in pursuit of  cleaner, fresher, more site-specific wines to convey the region’s mineral-rich Andean terroir. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Zuccardi works with what was named #1 on the 2019 World’s Best Vineyards list.

Zuccardi’s Poligonos series channels the terroir of Paraje Altamira, a subzone of La Consulta in Uco Valley. This area, where small squares of vines are tended by many families that have worked there for generations (as opposed to some of the sprawling corporate operations of Uco Valley), is in a tectonic depression where marine and sedimentary rocks proliferate. Many are white, coated with thick layers of the calcium carbonate that is the region’s hallmark. 

In the glass, that translates into a striking and savory mineral element, the kind that is unheard of anywhere in the world at this price. Sebastián Zuccardi is leading the revolution in Argentina, and this red shows that quality and complexity are right there alongside the country’s incredible value.