Reaching new heights The elegance that comes from Andean elevation

Anyone who isn’t excited about what’s happening in Argentinian winemaking right now can’t have been paying attention. There’s a confidence flowing through the industry, the wines are showing beautifully, and the enthusiasm of the producers is infectious.

For an enjoyable hour, Martín Kaiser, director of viticulture and winemaking at Doña Paula, proves the point in a Zoom tasting for a group of 24 independent merchants.

Doña Paula owns around 800ha of vineyards in Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley, which supply all the grapes it needs for its wines.

Martín – named viticulturist of the year in Tim Atkin MW’s Argentina Special Report 2020 – is on a constant quest to understand the Mendoza terroir in precise detail. It’s a subject that he could chat about at length, but maybe it’s best to let the wines do the talking.

Doña Paula Estate Riesling 2021 (RRP £14.99)

The Alluvia vineyard in Gualtallary, dating from 2007, is located at 1,350 metres of elevation. “So it’s like planting vines at the top of the highest mountain in the UK,” Martín points out, though in Mendoza terms we’re talking the foothills of the Andes.

“Over the years we’ve started to understand how this variety works. It’s a dry Riesling, and quite aromatic. This wine has just been fermented and then aged in stainless steel tanks. So everything that you get from the flavours is what the variety naturally creates in this kind of terroir.

“It’s quite expressive, it has some very fine herbal notes and it’s a little bit spicy. What is quite typical is that it has some honey notes on the nose that with time will transform into these petrol notes that are quite special.”

Euan McNicoll of McNicoll & Carnie is impressed by the value on offer here, describing the style as dry and delicate. “It reminds me of Alsace or Luxembourg Riesling,” he says. “Great acidity, good minerality, a bit of fruit. I’m not drinking this absolutely chilled, but the acidity still comes through.”

Doña Paula Estate Malbec 2021 (RRP £14.99)

“What we want to show here is maybe not the typical Malbec that opened the door about 20 years ago when Argentina started exporting great amounts of the varietal,” says Martín. “It’s a high-altitude Malbec.” Indeed about 70% of the fruit comes from the same Ben Nevis-elevation vineyard as the Estate Riesling.

This is Doña Paula’s flagship wine, but it doesn’t rest on its laurels. “We’re studying how to make it better every time,” Martín explains. “The picking point is quite important here because we want to have this balance between the freshness and the round palate. We want this wine to be the perfect match for many different meals.”

The Alluvia vineyard fruit contributes some texture with its hallmark grainy tannins, while the 30% component of Los Indios grapes, from El Cepillo, are more velvety. It makes for a complex wine, but one that is easy to drink.

Doña Paula Altitude Blend 969

2021

55% Petit Verdot, 40% Bonarda, 5% Malbec (RRP £21.99)

The number 969 represents the altitude of the vineyards in Luján de Cuyo. The idea is to make “a modern style of wine from a traditional region”, so the Petit Verdot and Bonarda grapes spend up to eight months in concrete eggs. No oak is used, to accentuate the natural fruit characters.

“The egg helps to create this texture in the mouth and a little bit of tension in the tannin,” says Martín. “So it’s very fruity but it has some spice coming from the Bonarda. We balance the big muscular texture of Petit Verdot with something soft and elegant. There are velvety tannins from the Bonarda, which is sweet and rounded.”

Our guests are intrigued to know what the Malbec is contributing. “I think it’s hard to avoid the temptation of adding some Malbec,” Martín admits. “We’ve tried making the wine with Petit Verdot and Bonarda alone. And then when you add a little bit of Malbec, something happens to make it more rounded and complete.” A touch of artistry to go with the science.

Doña Paula Altitude Blend 1100

2019

60% Malbec, 30% Syrah, 10% Cabernet

Sauvignon (RRP £21.99)

The 1100-metre altitude vineyard has sandy soil, with a deep calcareous layer beneath. “The wine has a balance between elegance and complexity,” says Martín.

“It’s a wine that has many layers. From an aromatic point of view, it’s fruity but at the same time herbal; a little bit floral. What is quite interesting is that it has some meaty flavours. Those are partly coming from the Syrah, but these calcareous soils also give you a meaty note.”

Euan McNicoll of McNicoll & Carnie agrees the wine is “floral on the nose, with a lovely lifted spicy character on the palate”. It has, he adds, a “very enjoyable tannic texture”.

This time the process is more traditional, with each variety fermented separately in tanks and then aged in French barrels, 20% of which are new. The vanilla notes are just discernible, adding extra depth and a hint of spice.

Doña Paula Altitude Blend 1350 2019

50% Cabernet Franc, 45% Malbec, 5% Casavecchia (RRP £21.99)

Cabernet Franc from Mendoza is establishing quite a reputation and it seems to take the limelight in this blend.

“In these conditions at very high altitude,

Cabernet Franc and Malbec show very distinctive flavours,” says Martín. “The wildness of the spices from Cabernet Franc combine with the fruity, floral notes that Malbec provides in the mouth.

“Malbec grown in these conditions gives you quite important tannins – they are quite grainy, but the Cabernet Franc is softer. So we combined both of them to get this balanced mouth feel. You will see that 1350 has a bigger structure than 1100.”

The wine is a highlight for Philip Amps of Amps Wine Merchants, and for Peter Langton, of Priory Wines, who loves its “freshness, vibrancy and complexity”. A “really classy wine”, he adds.

Doña Paula Selección de Bodega 2019

(RRP £63.99)

“This Malbec is our icon wine,” says Martín. “Everything that we learn, we apply to this wine. So this must always be the best wine from the winery. We want to show the very special potential of high-altitude Malbec from Argentina.”

Soils are up to 60,000 years old in this Gualtallary vineyard. Martín and his team identified a section with a particularly calcareous composition, creating stress in the vines. “Maybe it’s not nice for them,” he says, “but it makes the grapes ripen in a different way and produces more concentrated wines: Malbec with complexity and concentration, and high potential for ageing.”

The wine has an intensity and scale that comes as quite a jolt to the system, and it will mellow with age. But already there’s suppleness and finesse that completes the thread woven throughout the Doña Paula range, at every level.

Produced in association with Wines of Navarra