Why it matters
The producer
Part of the French LVMH group, Terrazas de los Andes is led in agronomy and winemaking by Lucas Löwi. Its work spans more than 200 high-altitude plots and more than 500 hectares cultivated with regenerative practices, so a Malbec can draw on separated sites rather than one broad Mendoza source.
The project emerged during the 1990s, although supplied accounts disagree on the exact founding year. One early decision has a clear wine consequence: Terrazas de los Andes planted in Gualtallary in 1993, when that Uco Valley area was far less established than it is now. The planting added another cool, elevated Mendoza source to the estate’s Malbec work, extending the conversation beyond its Luján de Cuyo base.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Mendoza’s mountain vineyards provide the thread through the bottles. The estate traces a line from Las Compuertas at 1,070 metres to El Espinillo at 1,650 metres; cooler high-altitude conditions slow ripening, preserving acidity alongside Malbec fruit and giving the range a firmer frame than a warm, low-lying source alone would provide.
Meltwater and diverse alluvial soils are part of the estate’s account of its vineyard character. Las Compuertas supplies an especially tangible anchor: an ungrafted Malbec vineyard planted in 1929. Across this spread of altitude and ground, site selection directs the shape of fruit and the balance between tannin, freshness and weight in the finished wines.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The estate’s vineyard scale is not treated as one uniform holding. More than 200 high-altitude plots allow fruit to be kept distinct before blending, while regenerative cultivation covers more than 500 hectares. In the cellar, Grand Malbec 2022 uses oak élevage, which sits alongside its fruit, herbal notes, tannin and acidity; Grand Chardonnay 2022 uses oak and lees, building texture around the grape’s acidity rather than turning the white into a Malbec-like wine.
Wines to know
The range in view
Reserva Malbec 2023 is the broad Malbec expression named in the supplied range, built to show the grape’s fruit and capacity to age. Grand Malbec 2022 moves into a more assembled style: it combines twelve plots, with three named districts contributing differentiated fruit and herbal registers, then develops through oak élevage into a wine with tannin, acidity and layered texture.
Grand Chardonnay 2022 takes the same attention to vineyard source into a white wine drawn from two vineyards. Oak and lees bring weight and texture, while acidity keeps the palate moving. Cheval des Andes stands apart from both Grand wines: created with Château Cheval Blanc, it combines Malbec with Cabernet Sauvignon in a Bordeaux-style blend, adding Cabernet structure to Mendoza fruit.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Begin with Grand Malbec 2022. It is a twelve-plot Malbec assembled from three named Mendoza districts, then raised with oak élevage. Fruit and herbal aromas lead into a textured palate carried by tannin and acidity, with oak folded into the finish. This bottle puts the producer’s central idea on the table: separated high-altitude sites are gathered into one Malbec rather than flattened into a single regional blend.