2019 Zuccardi Malbec Q Valle de Uco Mendoza 750 ml

Every time Zuccardi releases a new vintage of their velvety Q Malbec, we rifle through our notes, expecting the wine’s price to have caught up to its excellence—and every year, we’re left scratching our heads. With this 2019, Argentina’s preeminent winemaker pushes the boundaries of how much opulence and complexity he can pack into an under-$20 bottle.

Usually, a slew of impressive scores, multiple Wine & Spirits Top 100 Winery honors, back-to-back-to-back World’s Best Vineyard awards, and praise from The Wine Advocate as “clearly among the top wineries of the country” will send a winery’s prices skyward. 

The 2019 Q boasts 94 points from James Suckling and Smart Buy honors from Wine Spectator. The Wine Advocate has called past vintages of Q “incredibly good,” musing how bottles “at this price can have such precision and purity.” 

The value looks even better when you consider the attention that winemaker Sebastián Zuccardi gives each bottle. A Decanter Top 10 South American Winemaker, Zuccardi boasts the prestige of a world-renowned superstar, and he takes the hands-on approach of a boutique when tending to each vineyard and wine—whether the bottle costs $17 or $170—with painstaking care. 

Zuccardi is at the forefront of a renegade crew who have been called “cement heads“ for eschewing new oak in pursuit of site-specific wines that convey the region’s mineral-rich Andean terroir. The result is what Vinous calls “a modern take on Malbec,” a high-altitude wine with striking fresh-fruit character and zesty acidity.

A mix of concrete tanks and untoasted oak barrels shape the boldness of the fruit. It’s Malbec of serious quality that comes at an unbelievable price—and we’re hoping a case will last us a month