Achaval Ferrer, Finca Bella Vista

Mendoza 2010

Argentina, Argentina

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Style: Red	Drink from: 2023
ABV: 14.0%	Drink to: 2024
Packaging: OCC	Stock arriving: In Stock

Critic scores

93 RP, 94+ VM

Critic reviews

"The Bella Vista is always based on four hectares planted in 1910 and is normally the second vineyard harvested each year. The 2010 Finca Bella Vista is a pure Malbec from Lujan de Cuyo located at 980 meters altitude. Fermented in cement and aged for 16 months in new French barriques from the Mercurey cooperage, it has a sublime bouquet of blackberry, briary, woodland aromas and sous-bois that is all succinctly defined. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe, fine tannins surrounding a core of pure blackberry and wild strawberry fruit, interlaced by lemon rind and dark chocolate towards the controlled, refined finish. This is class from start to finish. Drink 2013-2020+.Achaval Ferrer should need no introduction to anyone with a passing interest in Argentinean wine, a paradigm of how far the country has progressed over the last decade. In 2011, founders Santiago Achaval and Manuel Ferrer sold a large percentage of shares to the SPI group that owns Stolichnaya vodka as well as shares in Tenuto d’Ornellaia and Frescobaldi, although both Ferrer and Achaval remain on the managing board. Instead of visiting the winery (which I intend to do in the future), I tasted wines past and present with Santiago in London, where I was afforded more time to plot the wine’s development in the glass. The tasting was no revelation, since I have encountered and appreciated the wines for many years. They are well-crafted, very pure and stylistically equidistant between Old World and New. My reviews will seem meaner and the scores more parsimonious than might be anticipated. It simply reflects where I see the wines in the context of such a comprehensive overview of a dynamic country – great wines for sure and very consistent, but perhaps others have stepped up their game? The older vintages have certainly held up well, although a demanding connoisseur would expect more in the way of secondary aromas and flavors to replace the lost primary ones."
Neal Martin, October 2012

"(from 80-year-old vines): Bright ruby. Aromas of blackberry, espresso, bitter chocolate, minerals and sassafras. Penetrating, linear and youthfully imploded, with raspberry and bitter cherry fruit flavors given clarity by firm spicy acidity and a pronounced mineral component. This has an almost pinot-like primary quality and superb inner-mouth tension, and will require serious patience."
Stephen Tanzer, March 2013