2017 Altocedro Malbec Reserve Old Vine Uco Valley Mendoza is sold out.

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A Malbec That Stands Tall with Bottles “Twice the Price”

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2017 Altocedro Malbec Reserve Old Vine Uco Valley Mendoza 750 ml

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  • Curated by unrivaled experts
  • Choose your delivery date
  • Temperature controlled shipping options
  • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

A Master Class in Argentine Terroir

The 2017 Altocedro Reserva Old Vine bottling is the authoritative, mic-drop statement of how good high-altitude, old-vine Uco Valley Malbec can be, from a cultish producer that Vinous has called “obsessive about quality.”

Take this bottle home and you’ll get a master class on Argentine terroir in a glass, and enjoy a cuvée that’s previously landed on Wine Spectator‘s Top 100 list. 

Altocedro founder Karim Mussi’s Reserva Malbec “has earned outstanding marks in every vintage he’s released so far,” says Wine Spectator. “It’s still under $40 and can easily stand in with many of the bigger Argentine Malbecs at twice the price.”

Suffused with briary intensity from 65-year-old original-rootstock vines, leavened with Andean mountain acids and the freshness that 3,300 feet of elevation brings, this is a fantastic regional benchmark you can—and should—judge other Malbecs against.   

We grabbed it the moment an allocation became available, recognizing that Altocedro’s Reserva Malbec was the bottle our members should buy to enjoy the muscularity and cedar-tinged floral bouquet that defines the Uco Valley. The Court of Master Sommeliers had the same idea: They acquired this very wine to teach aspiring sommeliers what Argentine Malbec should taste like.

Bearded, gregarious, and speaking with an accent indicating his Lebanese-Chilean origins, Altocedro’s Karim Mussi has a restless energy. Nicknamed the Phoenician, he “brings his inimitable sense of fun to everything he does,” says Vinous. In conversation, he is by turns fatalistic and optimistic, both Old World and New World in his outlook. 

In a rapidly expanding market for Argentine Malbec, he has to fight hard to separate his artisanal wines from the commercial stuff. But that willfulness is also what brought him to La Consulta in the first place, and has driven Altocedro to become a huge success here.

Karim and his father Mario were pioneers in this rugged, southern sub-appellation, starting Altocedro in 1989. Karim took over ten years later, the first release of the Reserva Old Vine bottling was in 2001, and it has been assembled from the same three vineyards in Altamira, Chacón, and El Cepillo ever since. Stark diurnal temperature variation, radiant sunshine, and alluvial soils spread by the nearby Tunuyan River all help to push the Malbec grape to the brink of ripeness. A strong acid backbone and mountain freshness help focus all that power.

Fermented in century-old cement tanks to preserve purity and aged in French oak for an added layer of richness, this is your desert-island Uco Valley Malbec, and made to stock up on at this price.