2021 Aventura Valle de Canota Malbec, Kaiken Aventura

• Style: Dry, full-bodied Argentine Malbec, 14.5%, concrete-aged, no oak
• Taste: Fresh strawberry, blackberry, dark chocolate, creamy, soft tannins
• Food: BBQ & grilled dishes, beef & steak, lamb, pork, stews & braises, empanadas
• Critic: 94 pts James Suckling, Tim Atkin & Descorchados; Silver, IWC 2023
• Occasion: Weeknight grill or Sunday lunch
• Serve: Lightly cooled, screwcap; drink now or hold a few years

In the Glass — Tasting Notes

Pour this and the colour gives the game away: a dense, violet-rimmed ruby that only Argentine Malbec grown under hard mountain sun seems to manage. Yet the Canota Valley — an Andean desert in the foothills, 22 miles from Mendoza city and a GI only since 2019 — keeps the fruit brighter than the plummy norm. Strawberry arrives fresh rather than jammy, blackberry sits beneath it, and dark chocolate threads through both. The body is firm and the texture creamy, but the tannins are soft, and it lingers on fruit with a wild-herb edge recalling the aromatic scrub of Mendoza's best high sites. James Suckling, Tim Atkin and Descorchados each gave it 94 points, it took Silver at the 2023 International Wine Challenge, and we agree. Dry, 14.5%, vegan and vegetarian friendly.

The Winery — Kaiken

Kaiken takes its name from the wild geese of Patagonia that cross the Andes between Chile and Argentina — fitting, because this is the Mendoza outpost of Chile's Montes family, who made the same journey over the mountains. Their vines sit in the heart of Mendoza and further south in the Uco Valley, the area so many of Argentina's premium names now look to for fruit, and while Malbec leads, they keep faith with Cabernet Sauvignon too, a grape rather left behind during Malbec's long run of success and one that still has plenty of fine old vineyards to its name in Mendoza. Around 70% of their fruit comes from estate vineyards, the rest from sites they manage themselves. The Aventura range is Kaiken's vehicle for exploring little-known sub-regions like Canota, planted in 2015. 2021 was a strong vintage here — a warm spring, a cooler January and February that stretched ripening, and late rain carefully managed. The winemaking stays out of the way: hand-picked in the cool of early morning, a brief soak for colour, wild-yeast fermentation, then twelve months in concrete rather than oak, which is why the fruit reads so pure, with a further half-year resting in bottle before leaving the winery.

At Your Table — Food Pairing & Serving

This is a Full Bodied Red Wine made for the grill: barbecued beef, carne asada or meat-filled empanadas meet its creamy weight head-on, and it is just as happy beside lamb, pork or a slow-cooked stew or braise — a natural for a weeknight barbecue or a proper Sunday lunch. Sealed under screwcap, it needs no fuss: open and pour, with a light chill if the day is warm. Those gentle tannins make it a pleasure now, and it will sit happily for a few more years. It sits proudly among the Argentine reds we've chosen — do explore the rest of our Malbec selection, the wider range from Kaiken, and every Full Bodied Red Wine in the cellar.