Benchmark Argentinian producer Achaval-Ferrer was the first winery in Argentina to achieve a 100 point score from The Wine Advocate.
The 2014 Malbec Finca Bella Vista is named after a vineyard located in Perdriel, in Luján de Cuyo, a classical zone in the province or Mendoza, from where the grapes are sourced. The process is quite similar for all of their wines, hand-picked grapes that go through a sorting table, fermentation in epoxy-lined cement vats with neutral yeasts and aging in new French oak barrels for some 13 months. Floral, peachy, aromatic, open and forward, this 2014 is elegant and harmonious. It feels lively and young.
94 points Luis Gutiérrez robertparker.com Dec 2016, Drink 2016-2020
(14% alcohol; from vines more than 100 years old that produced barely 14 hectoliters per hectare in 2014; aged for 12 months in new French oak): Bright ruby-red. Cassis, licorice, mocha, fig and nutty oak on the nose, along with an intriguing resiny element. Silky on entry, then quite backward and unevolved in the middle despite its utterly seamless texture. Red and dark currant flavors are complicated by peppery herbs, leather, minerals and smoky oak. A very complex, savory, elegantly styled wine with no edges. Finishes with firm but suave tannins. This is much more alluring and approachable today than the 2013 was a year ago but really needs time in bottle to deliver on its inherent complexity. Finishes very long, with no shortage of tannic support.