2019 Zuccardi Concreto Malbec Paraje Altamira Mendoza 750 ml

Sebastián Zuccardi is one of the shooting stars of Argentine wine. His vision for the future of his local wine industry is crystal-clear and ambitious—and no bottle embodies it like his Concreto Malbec.

What sets Concreto apart is Zuccardi’s approach: He takes Malbec grown in some of the stoniest soils, then ferments and ages it entirely in concrete. It’s a pure look at how special the grape can be when grown in the country’s top vineyards—and a bold declaration that the best terroirs in Argentina can achieve greatness with next to no makeup.

We’ve offered this wine in past vintages to glowing member-reviews, but none of those bottles compares to the 2019, which boasts 95-point scores from both Wine Advocate and James Suckling. 

Zuccardi is a winemaker with an incredibly contagious passion for terroir. He’s so obsessed with the region that he constructed his winery from the stones of his vineyards—a feat that earned it the title of “World’s Best Vineyard” from CNN in 2019. His mad-scientist-level passion also granted him a spot on Decanter’s list of South America’s Top 10 winemakers.

On our visit, Sebastián encouraged us to “try a stone” when we asked what he credits for the special texture of his wines. We did, and the chalkiness of the rocks is indeed evoked in the polished minerality of his finished Concreto. 

Zuccardi smiled. “Why would I want to cover all that magic with oak?”