Malvasía has traveled the world for centuries, planted across continents and quietly building a global footprint, yet it has never quite received the respect it deserves. The 2024 Escala Humana Livverá Malvasía makes a powerful case for that overdue recognition, crafted by Germán Masera, named Tim Atkin’s Argentine Winemaker of the Year in 2023, and already crowned with a stellar 97 points from JamesSuckling.com. This is a skin-contact, old-vine expression from a single historic site in El Zampal, with rows planted in 1927, a wine of lift, texture, and aromatic complexity shaped by history, place, and a light hand in the cellar. Seekers of complex and aromatic whites need to click and grab a six-pack here—this is a tremendous quality-to-price buy hiding in plain sight.

If you appreciate aromatic Italian varietals, Alsatian Gewürztraminer, or dry French Chenin Blanc with the mineral backbone of a Greek Assyrtiko, this is completely in your wheelhouse.

From the dynamic duo behind Escala Humana, Ayelén and Germán Masera, Livverá embodies their mission to revive forgotten grapes and forgotten corners of the Uco Valley. They’ve staked their reputation on Bequignol, Chenin Blanc, and Malvasía, sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in El Zampal, a sub-region of Tupungato where clay, loam, and sand soils sit at elevation and vines have stories that begin in the early 1900s. The result is a Malvasía that feels equal parts discovery and conviction: it speaks softly at first, then keeps unfolding in the glass with citrus peel, herbs, florals, and a gentle, phenolic grip.

Germán is no stranger to Mendoza’s avant-garde, having worked alongside Matías Michelini, but the accolades now belong squarely to him and to the wines he and Aye craft under the LIV (life) VERA (truth) banner. The project is rooted in ancestral vineyards and the “depth of the valley” where the first immigrant growers planted their vines, and every bottle feels like a direct line to that history. This is Malvasía for the wine lover and wine explorer: nuanced but not austere, characterful but not heavy, and so compelling in the glass that once you’ve tasted it, one bottle simply won’t be enough.

Viva Argentina!

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