2022 Malbec Estate Bottled | Red Mountain

In 15 years Malbec grew from a 2-acre experiment to Kiona’s fifth-most-planted cultivar on Red Mountain. The variety is highly sought after by Red Mountain winemakers for its strong varietal typicity and opaque coloration – demand for Sunset Bench Malbec continues to outpace supply. Average elevation at Sunset Bench is almost 100’ higher than at Kiona Estate, resulting in exposure and drainage that are particularly well-suited to the thick-skinned grape.

Malbec was “discovered” by the new world wine-drinking public as a superb stand-alone cultivar for fruit-forward, dark, approachable wines with lots of depth. This certainly holds true on Red Mountain, where the wines tend to exhibit a softer, svelte tannin profile. Of the Bordeaux red cultivars grown in our region, Malbec stands out as being particularly tasty in its youth and equally at ease with food or by itself. The 2022 version sports a healthy dollop of Carmenère, a component that adds aromatic pop, compelling texture, and layered intrigue.