Is there a country more synonymous with a single grape variety than Argentina and Malbec? New Zealand and Sauvignon Blanc perhaps? Either way, it’s an exclusive club.
Malbec made its way to Argentina in 1853 courtesy of a Mr Michel Pouget, where it was initially valued as a way to add colour to the pale wines made from native Criolla varieties. Now though, Malbec is all-conquering on the eastern side of the Andes.
Andrea Ferreyra with the La Celia Heritage Malbec and Elite Cabernet Franc line-up, February 18, Institute of Masters of Wine, London
Andrea Ferreyra has been making La Celia Heritage Malbec since 2006 and there was an opportunity to taste it and every subsequent vintage of the wine recently in London. Ferreyra was joined by Argentine-born Best Sommelier in the World 2023, Valeria Gamper, to guide us through the wines, making this an all-female affair.
Though the tasting focused on these relatively recent vintages, La Celia was the first winery to be founded in the Uco Valley, back in 1890. They were also the first to plant Malbec there, with cuttings brought over from France, giving them more vintages and experience with this grape than any other producer.
In general, UK drinkers are remarkably uninterested in the exact origin of one of their favourite red wine styles, content to associate it with the vast region of Mendoza. As Ferreyra pointed out, Mendoza is half the size of Spain so, unsurprisingly, there is considerable variation in terroir, based on latitude, proximity to the Andes and types of soil.
La Celia has vineyards in two of the most pre-eminent sub-areas of the Uco Valley – La Consulta and Paraje Altamira – as well as in Eugenio Bustos, an area named for the founder of La Celia.
World's best sommelier 2023, Argentine-born Valeria Gamper helped introduce the wines
Heritage Malbec is a single vineyard wine from a plot in Paraje Altamira at 1,100m above sea level with shallow and very stony soils with calcareous gravel. The Pacific ocean may be only 200km away, but any weather systems from the west are caught on the mighty Andes, so Altamira is dry, with an average of only 350mm of rain annually. Looking at satellite images of the area, any uncultivated land is uniformly grey.
Ferreyra, like most winemakers, is refreshingly honest and forthright in her assessment of her own wines. The early years, spanning 2006-2012 were, she says “a time when there was no focus on terroir or vintage variation”. With young vines (the oldest were planted in 1994), winemaking in the Bordeaux mould, and a goal of concentration, these older wines are nevertheless fine and accomplished. This speaks to the specialness of the site – and to Ferreyra’s skill as a winemaker.
Tasting Heritage Malbec 2012-2022
By 2012 the original 100% new oak ageing regime had been somewhat relaxed, with some used barrels creeping into the winery. This was, says Ferreyra, their “last Bordelais vintage”. Tasting Heritage Malbec 2012 now, it exhibits lovely freshness and sweetness of fruit, combined with a dense and concentrated palate which stays tightly wound all the way to the end.
Over the years there have been changes in both the vineyard and the winery. 2013 saw the now commonplace measure of digging pits in the vineyard plots to analyse and map the soils more accurately and minutely. By 2015, foudres had joined the barriques in the cellar.
In Heritage Malbec 2015, a warm El Nino-affected year, the wine has sweet, lingering black fruit and a hint of violets. The velvety texture hints at ripeness and warmth.
The Heritage Malbec 2017 saw the use of 30% whole bunch in the ferment, in order to bring finesse, and the resulting wine has noticeable aromas of dark chocolate and a hint of cedar.
Heritage Malbec 2019 is what Ferreyra calls the first of the “wines from the vineyard” in what Valeria Gamper said was the vintage of the decade. Slow ripening has led to a wine with good balance and tannin ripeness. There’s still a little bit of whole bunch here (15-30%) which contributes to a fine and delicately defined wine with fresh berry fruit and a chalky finish.
By 2020, the grapes are being picked around a month earlier than those first vintages and, in the winery, barriques have been completely abandoned in favour of 2,000 litre foudres. The Heritage Malbec 2020 has a Rhôney feel to it: rich, ripe and glossy, but still with density and juicy black cherry fruit and a touch of bitter chocolate. This was, of course, the COVID vintage, but a warm growing season and early picking meant that the wines were already safely fermenting by the time lockdown arrived.
Heritage Malbec 2021 hails from a cooler and wetter year, and the resulting wine is more savoury than the 2020, though still with plenty of juiciness and a ripe texture.
The final vintage we tasted, the Heritage Malbec 2022, was what Gamper called the “miracle vintage” which was drier than average and had an unusual combination of 16 days in the growing season below 0°C and 27 days over 30°C. That cold-hot combination has led to a wine with great concentration, but wonderful freshness and expressive, bramble fruit. Though still a toddler in wine terms, we can see that Andrea has reached her goal of making a single vineyard Malbec that does express both its terroir and the vintage.
Tasting two Elite Cabernet Francs
Another Bordeaux import has been making an impression in Argentina in recent years: Cabernet Franc. We tasted two vintages of Elite Cabernet Franc (a level below Heritage in the La Celia hierarchy) which neatly demonstrated the appeal of this ancient French variety in its new home.
The cooler, wetter year of 2021 brings a wine with sweet fruit, but an underlying earthiness and some green bell pepper. The “miracle vintage” again showed its hand in the 2022, which was richer and a little floral, dense and ripe, but with lovely balance of fruit and freshness.
Tasting through the fruits of nearly twenty years of work, there have not been huge pendulum swings along the way, sweeping from rich and concentrated styles to lean and elegant, before arriving at an equilibrium somewhere between the two. Instead, it seems to be a story of young vines coming into maturity and a winemaker gradually throwing off the shackles of received winemaking wisdom, finding the confidence to let the vines and the soil do the talking.
La Celia is part of the VSPT Wine Group which is a commercial partner of The Buyer. To discover more about them click here. Currently the Reserva wines are available in the UK via Enotria&Coe. The Heritage Malbec will also be available in the coming months.
