2020 Chakana Ayni Malbec Paraje Altamira Mendoza

While inexpensive Malbec gets all the attention, we’d argue that the best wines coming from Mendoza are the real exciting category in Argentina—and perhaps the greatest values relative to their peers.

The poster child for our claim would be Chakana’s single-vineyard Ayni Malbec. In 2020, they made a bottle built to thrill even the most jaded Napa Cab collectors, with power and complexity to spare…and a price-tag that would put most California-grown wines of its quality to shame.

Grown at over 3,600 feet above sea level in the prestigious Altamira sub-region of Mendoza, it earned rapturous praise from the normally stern Jeb Dunnuck. He awarded it 95 points—his top rated Malbec in 2020—and couldn’t stop raving, praising it as “ripe, powerful, full-bodied, and opulent, with a silky, seamless mouthfeel and beautiful overall length.” 

In Argentina, altitude often equals intensity, with blazing sun thickening grapes’ skins while dramatic nighttime temperature swings preserve freshness and ensure extended hang-times. Generally, soils are rockier at altitude as well, stressing vines and producing more character in the finished wines.

It’s an ideal climate to grow Malbec, and Chakana knows that the best way to honor this site is to minimize the impact of oak in the cellar. There’s plenty of power and polish in the grapes on their own, so elevage is in a mixture of large tanks that allow tannins to soften and flavors to develop with time. Add in a few extra years of aging before we got our hands on it and you get a stunning bottle that begs for a backyard asado.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.50%
• 15 mins
• Now – 2029
• % Malbec
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork