Malbec

Argentina's adopted hero — inky, plummy, floral at altitude.

Malbec is the Argentine national red, but it originated as one of Bordeaux's six permitted blender grapes. In the cooler French Cahors region it produces dark, rustic reds known historically as black wine. Transplanted to Mendoza in the 19th century, Malbec found higher elevation and more sun than Bordeaux ever provided, yielding plummy, violet-perfumed, less aggressively tannic wines that became Argentina's flagship export. Uco Valley vines at 1100-1500m produce the most concentrated and aromatically lifted versions; lower-elevation Luján de Cuyo bottlings tend rounder and more approachable.