IN THE LAND OF MALBEC

Argentina's vintners are exploring their country's diverse terroirs with great success

- AARON ROMANO

"Malbec is a philosophy, not a religion," says Matervini winemaker  Santiago Achával. "When the wines get attention, the valley gets attention. The oldest vetted long-term source of originality is the land."

Malbec thrives in the unique landscape of Argentina. Warm and arid, with many vineyards planted at elevations ranging between 2,200 and 6,500 feet, Argentina is the only major wine region to account for elevation in its understanding of terroir. As a result, the difference in temperature between vineyards in lower-lying areas around the city of Mendoza, situated at approximately 2,500 feet, and the highest vineyards in Uco Valley, which stand around 5,200 feet, would be analogous to growing grapes in Napa Valley versus Champagne-only these Argentine locales are within an hour's drive of each other, rather than thousands of miles apart. Somehow, Malbec does well in these varied climates.

"The beauty of Malbec is its plasticity to grow in many different places with high quality and show differently," says Achával. "When you find a piece of land that has an identity, you need to recognize it as such and codify it."

For the past two decades, Argentinian winemakers have been keying in on how best to represent Malbec, which has become the country's calling card. The unifying opinion is that Malbec is a translator of place, and that capturing the diversity of Argentina's many subregions and transmitting their terroir in the wines is paramount to the grape's global success. There's no denying it-Argentine Malbec is evolving. "We're more conscious of place, and we're winning with texture, balance and freshness," says Familia Zuccardi winemaker Sebastián Zuccardi.