Professional Ratings

• 96 Points James Suckling
  The aromatics are impressive, with orange blossoms, sliced oranges and black fruit. Hints of tar with some minerals, fresh spices and chiles. Medium-bodied with very fine tannins that run the length of the wine. They are polished and curated. Chewy at the end but there’s a finesse, tension and focus. 42% tannat, 39% cabernet franc and 19% petit verdot. Drinkable now, but better from 2027.
• 94 Points Wine & Spirits
  Garzón’s granite formed before Pangaea started to break apart 200 million years ago: Managing Director Christian Wiley says geologists trace the soil back 2.5 billion years, and that no vines arrived to feed on that soil until 2008, when Alejandro Bulgheroni decided to plant vineyards rather than a windfarm near Pueblo Garzón. “In the past, people just fished and worked with cows,” says Wiley, who oversees this vast project for the Argentine billionaire. The winegrowing team, headed up by Germán Bruzzone (from an Uruguayan winegrowing family) and lead consultant Alberto Antonini, had to train the local workers in viticulture, and have planted 625 acres of vines since the project began. Balasto, named for the clay-free granite in which those vines grow, is the team’s most ambitious wine. For this taster, the 2020 is the year they got it right. A blend of 42 percent tannat, 39 percent cabernet franc and 19 percent petit verdot, this fermented in 8,000-liter cement tulips then aged in untoasted French oak barrels. The wine achieves a complex dynamic between oak tannins and musky dark cherry fruit, all the while holding to its cool, oceanic provenance. Both luscious and fresh, this is an elegant wine at the beginning of its life. It will be fascinating to open the 2020 in 2030 and 2040, to find out where its power and dynamism will lead.
• 90 Points Wine Spectator
  Opens with subtle leather, spice and graphite notes, offering good density to the plum and brambly berry flavors. Picks up spiced chocolate notes on the finish, where there is a firm grip of tannins, so patience is required. Tannat, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2025 through 2033.