Terrazas de los Andes Grand Malbec

Terrazas de los Andes Grand Malbec is Terrazas’s flagship high altitude Malbec. The wine is a blend of grapes from three different vineyard sites, including some from their Las Compuertas vineyard.

Terrazas de los Andes was established in 1992 by Chandon Argentina, which was itself established by Champagne Moet et Chandon as their Argentine wine project in 1960. Terrazas produces superb premium wines from some of the world’s highest vineyards. The winery has been named after the terraces situated at different altitudes upon which the vines are grown. Within these unique microclimates, Terrazas de los Andes presents a range of wines which offer great fruit concentration and varietal character. Their vineyards are located in the heart of Mendoza’s Luján de Cuyo and Uco Valleys. The high-altitude climate, with its low rainfall, rocky soil, and lack of organic elements in the ground, forces vines to work hard for hydration and nutrients which helps to produce grapes with intense, vivid flavours. The Terrazas Grand range comprises three wines, a Malbec, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay.

The fruit for the Terrazas de los Andes Grand Malbec is the company’s fullest expression of Malbec. It comes from 14 Malbec plots from three of the company’s best regeneratively grown vineyards which are located at the foothills of the Andes. It is the result of a blending of Malbec grown on the deep soils of Terrazas’s Las Compuertas vineyard in Lujan de Cuyo (altitude 1070 metres above sea level) and Malbec grown on the rocky terroir of Paraje Altamira in the Uco Valley (altitude 1100 metres above sea level. The former lends red fruit aromas and flavours, round tannins and a distinctive elegance whilst the latter provide floral and aromatic spice notes with great balance. There is also a third component from Los Chacayes, the land of the rolling stones, also in the Uco Valley (altitude 1200m) which brings beautiful intensity of colour, aromas of black fruit and mineral notes with structure, concentration and luminous freshness.

After harvest, the grapes from each plot are destemmed and gravity-fed into tanks. A blend of plots is made and aged in first-use oak barrels for 12 months, in oak tanks, and in second-use barrels to maintain the freshness and purity of the fruit.