Who makes it
Bodegas Lopez does something that almost no New World winery does at scale: it ages the wine for you. Montchenot arrives in the market already matured, a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant blend from a single Maipú estate that has been sitting in large French oak foudres. The winery's own framing is direct: the time and patience dedicated to ageing are not asked of you. They are provided by the house.
Four generations of the López family have managed the winery since its founding in 1898, without an external acquisition interrupting that sequence. At 40 million litres of total production capacity, with 12 vineyard estates across three Mendoza sub-zones and 5.7 million litres resting in French oak at any given moment, Bodegas Lopez operates at industrial scale. Family control at that size, for that long, is not the Argentine norm.
Where it grows
Maipú sits in the lower, warmer flatlands east of Mendoza city, at roughly 700 to 800 metres above sea level. It is not the Uco Valley, and it is not making that argument. Where the Uco Valley has built its reputation on altitude, volcanic soils, and freshness, Maipú's claim is older: it was where Argentine wine industrialised in the late nineteenth century, and the best old-vine parcels still carry that historical depth.
Cruz de Piedra is a district within Maipú. The La Marthita estate sits there, planted in 1940, making its Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec vines among the oldest continuously farmed parcels in Mendoza. At that age, yields are lower, root systems are deeper, and the fruit character shifts away from the primary, high-toned profile of young vines toward something denser and more contained.
How it is made
The cellar
Montchenot is sourced from La Marthita. The vines, planted in 1940, are farmed across a single Cruz de Piedra estate and harvested for a blend in which Cabernet Sauvignon takes the dominant share, with Merlot and Malbec completing the combination.
The critical cellar decision is the barrel format. The foudres used for Montchenot exceed 5,000 litres in capacity, compared to the 225-litre Bordeaux barriques that define most premium red wine ageing worldwide. The difference in effect is considerable: in a large vessel, the ratio of wine volume to oak surface area is far higher, meaning oxygenation is slower, extraction of wood tannin is more gradual, and the wine develops tertiary complexity over years rather than months without acquiring the aggressive oak character that smaller barrels impart early. Montchenot Gran Reserva 2015 shows a complex, spiced character with roasted oak, dark currant, raisin, cedar, violet, coffee, chocolate, eucalyptus, licorice, tobacco, and vanilla.
What they make
The Montchenot range is a single-estate, single-blend family of wines differentiated by time in barrel.
Montchenot Gran Reserva 2015 shows a complex, spiced character with roasted oak, dark currant, raisin, cedar, violet, coffee, chocolate, eucalyptus, licorice, tobacco, and vanilla.
Wines to try
First bottle
Montchenot is Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec from the La Marthita estate, aged in large-format French oak foudres before release. It arrives in the glass already evolved, with tertiary depth and integrated wood character. The aromatic range is wide, dark currant and raisin anchoring the fruit, cedar and tobacco framing the wine, violet and eucalyptus lifting the finish. It is a full, savory wine with the Iberian patience of its production philosophy written clearly in its time in barrel.