From a tiny Los Chacayes project producing around 22,000 bottles a year, A Corazón Abierto has earned international attention with a 97-point platinum Gran Corte at the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards.

There are moments in wine when the headline is easy to spot. A famous producer wins another trophy. A grand estate collects another perfect score. A giant Mendoza name adds another line to an already impressive international résumé. Then there are results like this one.

A Corazón Abierto, the small Mendoza project founded by winemaker Leandro Azin, has come out of the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards with five medals: Three silver, one bronze and a platinum. The platinum went to its Gran Corte 2020, with 97 points. Its Cabernet Franc scored 94 for silver, the two Malbec entries scored 90 and 91, both silver, while the Cabernet Sauvignon received 87, a bronze.

After nearly a decade in Latin America, I have learned that Mendoza wine has a particular rhythm. The big names matter. They have helped put Argentina on serious wine lists around the world. Yet compelling stories also emerge at a scale small enough for a winemaker to know every vineyard decision personally. That is where A Corazón Abierto gets my attention.

A Corazón Abierto began in 2010 as Leandro Azin’s personal wine adventure. Azin, a Mendoza-born winemaker, had worked in larger wineries before joining Clos de los Siete, the French-led Mendoza project associated with Bordeaux winemaking and Michel Rolland. It was there that he encountered microvinification in barrel, including integral fermentation, and began shaping the idea that would become his own project. The winery is focused on Los Chacayes in the Uco Valley, working with limited production and wines fermented in barrel. The project produces around 22,000 bottles across its portfolio each year, according to the winery.

Scale matters. Its most exclusive Gran Corte 2020 represents only around 800 bottles according to the winery’s technical information. That is the sort of number that changes the way I think about a wine, as it moves the conversation away from availability and towards intent. Azin has also spoken openly about refusing to make wine simply to maintain a release schedule. If a vintage does not reach the standard he wants, the wine does not go into the bottle.

The winery says this happened with the 2015 and 2016 vintages, a costly decision for a small producer. Yet, it actually tells me more about this project than a polished marketing phrase ever could. Los Chacayes has become one of the Uco Valley’s closely watched areas, particularly for wines with concentration, freshness and structure. A Corazón Abierto builds its story directly around that place.

The winery’s Gran Corte technical sheet gives a useful glimpse into the environment: The vineyard sits at 1,280 metres above sea level, on glacial-alluvial soils with sandy to sandy-loam textures, limestone, gravel and stone. The site is planted at 6,000 vines per hectare and harvested by hand. Those details bring the bottle back to the ground. Wine can become abstract very quickly when we talk only about scores. A vineyard at 1,280 metres, with gravel and calcareous material close to the surface, gives us something tangible to imagine.

A Corazón Abierto works with integral barrel fermentation, putting grape and oak together from the beginning rather than treating the barrel simply as a finishing stage. It is exacting. Used well, it can produce depth and texture; used without restraint, oak can dominate the fruit. The 2026 results suggest that, across several expressions, the approach is working, especially because they do not depend on one lucky bottle.

The Cabernet Franc earned 94 points and a silver medal. This is a significant result for a variety that has become one of the Uco Valley’s most expressive grapes. Then there is the Cabernet Sauvignon, which received 87 points and bronze. Wine awards can look like a clean staircase of success, but real portfolios are rarely that tidy. A bronze alongside a platinum and three silvers gives the result useful context.

Every bottle does not need to be a 97-point wine for the project to be interesting. The two Malbecs tell another part of the story. One received 90 points and silver; the other scored 91 and silver. In Argentina, Malbec is the obvious benchmark, so these medals matter. They suggest that A Corazón Abierto can work within Mendoza’s signature grape while maintaining its own approach to extraction, barrel fermentation and ageing.

For a wine lover deciding where to explore, I would start here. The Malbecs provide a useful way into the house style before moving towards the more ambitious blend. Then comes the Gran Corte. The 97-point platinum Gran Corte 2020 is the bottle that changes the scale of the conversation. It is a blend of Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot, with Malbec taking the central role.

The wine comes from Los Chacayes at 1,280 metres and, according to the winery, undergoes cold carbonic maceration before alcoholic fermentation, followed by 18 months in new French oak. The wine then spends a minimum of 24 months ageing in bottle. The winery lists a potential ageing capacity of 25 years. Only around 800 bottles are made. That combination is important.

The 97-point score has headline value, but the more revealing detail is the philosophy behind it. Small production, a labour-intensive technique, extended ageing and a wine designed for longevity all point in the same direction. The platinum medal confirms that the strategy has found an international audience. Decanter’s 2026 competition tasted more than 16,000 wines, and only 1.18 per cent received platinum. A Corazón Abierto’s Gran Corte therefore sits in a very narrow group recognised at the highest level of the competition. Decanter’s own 2026 platinum list includes Gran Corte 2020 among Argentina’s platinum wines. For a boutique Mendoza producer, that matters.

What this win really says about A Corazón Abierto is that its strength is precisely its scale. Mendoza has room for enormous producers, historic estates, ambitious new projects and tiny operations making a few hundred bottles of something deeply personal. Argentina’s international wine reputation depends on all of them. A Corazón Abierto offers a particularly appealing version of the small-producer story because the wines are connected to a very specific place and a very deliberate method. There is patience here, and a willingness to let scarcity remain part of the equation. That resonates with the discerning wine drinker.

Luxury wine, at its best, gives you a reason to slow down. It asks you to notice where the wine came from, who made it, why the bottle exists and whether the experience stays with you after the last glass. A Corazón Abierto has now given the world five reasons to pay attention. The platinum Gran Corte 2020 may be the headline, and rightly so. Yet I would look at the whole five-medal performance. The 94-point Cabernet Franc, the two silver Malbecs and the 87-point Cabernet Sauvignon show a broader portfolio being tested on an international stage. That is the story I find worth telling.

In a province filled with wine giants, a small project from Los Chacayes has made a very large impression. And perhaps the most attractive part of the story is that A Corazón Abierto appears to be pursuing exactly what its name suggests: Making wine with its heart open, one very limited bottle at a time. Salud!

A Corazón Abierto’s award-winning performance at the 2026 DWWA has made a very big impression.(Photo by Openheart Wines)

A Corazón Abierto is a boutique Mendoza project founded by winemaker Leandro Azin, pictured with his 94-point Cabernet Franc.(Photo by Openheart Wines)

Los Chacayes has become one of the Uco Valley’s closely watched areas, particularly for wines with concentration, freshness and structure. (Photo by Openheart Wines)

The site sits 1,280 metres above sea level and has 6,000 vines per hectare planted on glacial-alluvial soils with limestone, gravel & stone.(Photo by Openheart Wines)

Its most exclusive Gran Corte 2020 represents only around 800 bottles according to the winery’s technical information. (Photo by Openheart Wines)

The two Malbec entries, produced by A Corazón Abierto, scored 90 and 91, respectively, both silver medallists. (Photo by Openheart Wines)

A Corazón Abierto works with integral barrel fermentation, putting grape & oak together from the beginning rather than treating the barrel simply as a finishing stage. (Photo by Openheart Wines)