2014 Fabre Montmayou Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva Mendoza

93-point “Polish and Poise” — 2014 Fabre Montmayou Cabernet Sauvignon

Sometimes the good guys win too.

In a mass-market wine world where fantasy names and kangaroos on labels somehow sell millions of cases of insipid whites and reds, the true craftsmen of the finest bargains in the world are often lost in the shuffle. Such is the case today in Mendoza, where most consumers, confronted with dozens of selections on retail shelves, scratch their heads, trying to figure out what’s good — and what’s what the British call “PLONK!”

Truth be told, Argentina’s wineries are on the hot seat. With a government fiscal plan that most reminds us of a Kindergarten Weekly Reader, with inflation ranging from 20-35% depending upon which sources one chooses to believe, and an internal economy mired in uncertainty, the finest wineries in Mendoza are struggling to survive. As Stephen Tanzer, the longtime publisher of International Wine Cellar, wrote, it’s “a race to the bottom” in Argentina.

Unless you had the vision and resolve of Argentine Winemaker of the Year Hervé Fabre.

When Fabre first arrived in Mendoza, he couldn’t understand what was going on. Foreign investment was pouring into the vineyards of Argentina, most ticketed for new plantings on easily irrigated parcels at low elevation. Replete with land-rippers and high-tech irrigation systems, the idea was to get lots into production quickly, then take advantage of the low cost of labor in Mendoza.

Fabre saw things differently.

High up in the foothills of the Andes, just 20 kilometers out of town, a swath of land had been planted almost a century before. The vines were head-trained, not trellised. Yields were tiny and, as is the case with old-vine plantings all over the world, concentration was extreme. Given the small crop, the cost of production would be much higher than in the flats, but as Hervé quickly observed, these ancient vines had the potential for something special.

After taking stock of the direction taken by other investors, Hervé did just the opposite. He purchased every old-vine parcel he could find. Then he built a modern cellar and went to work.

Over the last few years, the most revered wine critics have raved about Fabre’s old-vine Malbecs and superb Cabernet Sauvignons. First, the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London named Hervé Argentina’s “Winemaker of the Year.” Then it was Britain’s Decanter Magazine (MWs Jancis Robinson and Tim Atkin). Finally, Robert Parker piled on in Issue #212 of The Wine Advocate.

Still, never before has one of Hervé’s Fabre Montmayou Cabernet Sauvignons garnered such attention as in the superb 2014 vintage, when Atkin posted one of the highest ratings ever attributed to a $16 Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2014 Fabre Montmayou Cabernet Sauvignon is a magnificent high-elevation release that, as Atkin reported, blows away Cabernets Sauvignons selling for twice its price. Dark purple and polished. Plush and flamboyant aromatically yet, true to Fabre’s roots, still elegantly restrained and chiseled. Rich, juicy, and full-bodied on the attack, filled with blackberry, mountain blueberry, violets, and graphite, finishing with excellent high-elevation tension and tannic cut. Atkin suggests a drinking window of 2016-2022; we have no reason to dispute the opinion of the British Master of Wine.

$15.99/bottle. All day and all night … as a guy who’s crafting truly brilliant bargain reds comes out on top today on WineAccess.

• ABV 14.50%
• Enjoy right away
• % Cabernet Sauvignon