Altos las Hormigas Tinto Mendoza 2022

Altos las Hormigas is a cutting-edge winery on the forefront of innovation in Argentina. The winery was founded in 1995 by the former Antinori winemaker, Alberto Antonini in a special project with entrepreneur Antonio Morescalchi. Together, the two bought 200 hectares of land in Lujan de Cuyo to focus on Malbec and Bonarda. As Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate declared, “this is a prime example of a winery doing everything right.”

The Tinto Mendoza from Altos las Hormigas is one of those wines that shows the true potential of this famous region. It’s far more than just a standard Malbec-only region. The Bonarda and Malbec here are sourced from Lujan de Cuyo with the Semilion coming from the Uco Valley.

Everything is sorted by hand and the Malbec and Semilion are harvested early and co-fermented while the Bonarda is vinified separately. All the components see steel tanks and then concrete vats which is why all of the components here come absolutely ROARing out of the gates.

92 points from James Suckling who called this “medium-bodied, juicy and bright on the palate with fine tannins and a sleek textural finish.” I expect a few more big scores – he’s just the first reviewer to get his hands on it but The Wine Advocate is consistently high on this wine and this vintage is outstanding and I have no doubts it will follow that trend.