2019 As Bravas Pampa Gualtallary El Enemigo

Equal parts brawny and finessed, the 2019 As Bravas Malbec Gualtallary is one of the most memorable wines I've tasted from Argentina. Fermented in concrete pools with an 80-day maceration before a 64-month élevage in 100-year-old foudre, it hails from a 0.9-hectare parcel at Catena's Alto Gualtallary Vineyard, which is co-planted with Sémillon. Whereas its stablemate from El Cepillo opens on an alluring, quiet note, this wine absolutely bounds from the glass with an intoxicating nose that is the very quintessence of Gualtallary: resinous herbs, botanicals, violets, iris, asphalt, black licorice and graphite, to name but a portion of what one can expect. The mouthfeel follows with a similarly definitive example of what has made the region one of Argentina's most compelling: massive, muscular density imbued with an almost confounding buoyancy, all of which is laced with searing minerality and unwavering definition. This conclusion sums into an explosive and relentless finish that, while it exudes the refinement one expects of world-class wine, also bears a somewhat raw, primal and transparent nature that ratchets up the complexity considerably.