Raudonasis sausas
Cheval des Andes has been making this wine since the 1999 vintage, and it has always been a blend based on malbec and cabernet sauvignon. The primary source of the grapes is Las Compuertas, on the northern bank of the Mendoza River, a classic zone for Mendozan malbec, which makes up 65% of the wine here, while the rest comes from Altamira, in the southern Uco Valley. This year it's 70% malbec (half from Altamira and half from Las Compuertas) and 30% cabernet sauvignon from Las Compuertas. Most of it was aged for about a year in 225- and 400-liter barrels, and another 20% in foudres. This wine has been mutating since 2014, when the freshness and fruity flavors began to emerge with greater clarity over the excesses of concentration and oak of the past. This version continues in that direction in a wine that's radiant in ripe red fruits, herbs, and a layer of tannins that's both very smooth and very tense. It has great elegance, great depth of flavors, and just the right amount of acidity so that they not only refresh but also project across the palate. Altamira and its firm tannins, its reddest fruits (they're mountain grapes after all), seem to gain prominence. A very good vintage of this modern classic of Argentine wine.
Terrazas de los Andes is an Argentinian wine producer based in the country's key winegrowing region of Mendoza. The estate was established at a historic 1898 Spanish-style winery in the heart of the region. In 1992, Chandon Argentina of Moët & Chandon began the Terrazas de los Andes project to discover the best sites for Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Torrontés, and Chardonnay in the region. Soon after the winery was established in 1996, Terrazas de los Andes partnered with Château Cheval Blanc to produce the Cheval des Andes a blend of Malbec with Bordeaux varieties.The Terrazas de los Andes wine portfolio is led by the Grand range, a duo of varietal Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon wines that are sourced from the best high-altitude plots of the estate vineyards. Both spend between 16 to 18 months aging in new French oak prior to bottling and will happily cellar for a few decades. Other ranges include the value-driven Altos del Plata, composed of varietal Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. The range is designed to be approachable with fruit-forward wines suited to a broad range of consumers. The vineyards range between 600 to 1800 meters above sea level, located in the Luján de Cuyo and Uco Valley subregions, as well as in Cafayate in the region of Salta.