Kaiken Estate Malbec

For Kaiken, the grapes are gently fermented and the young wine is filled into barrels, half of which are American oak, for eight months to mature. Then it is bottled, only lightly filtered to preserve its original taste. Kaiken, Montes' latest project, however, comes from Argentina. Montes vinifies the Kaiken wines in a leased winery from purchased grapes from various sites in the Tupungato area, Mendoza. All suppliers were selected very carefully and every stage of viticulture is monitored by Montes. As soon as it has been determined which areas produce the best grapes, Montes will, if necessary, buy its own vineyard land in Argentina and build a winery.

Color: deep dark violet

Scent: opulent bouquet of blueberries, black currants, fine notes of dark chocolate, tobacco, and coffee

Taste: juicy, very complex, and excellently structured; the full fruit also dominates on the palate, supported by ripe tannin, which accompanies a dreamlike, endlessly long finale.

James Suckling 90 points

Kaiken is what the Mapuche Indians call the Patagonian wild goose, which crosses the Andes mountains now to Chile, now to Argentina. And because Montes was also drawn across the Andes to neighboring Argentina in 2019 to prepare his selected qualities there, he named them after the geese: Kaiken.