2018 PerSe Uni del Bonnesant Gualtallary Mendoza

It seems almost ridiculous to hail a vineyard as a Grand Cru site - and one of the best in the New World to boot - when it's only five years' old, but that's how good Uní del Bonnesant is. Just a whisker short of perfection, this is what you get from a great terroir in an excellent vintage. Aniseed, clove and green mint aromas lead you into a palate of blood orange, strawberry and blackberry, with caressing tannins, violet top notes and a finish that lasts for more than a minute. The Chambertin of Argentinian Malbec, this should start a bidding war for the 291-bottle production. 2023-35.

The pure Malbec 2018 Uní del Bonnesant was produced with the grapes from 312 vines planted in gobelet on 0.06 hectares in 2013 on the edge of a slope, where the southeast exposure makes it cooler and where the soil is poorer with more limestone content than in the rest of the vineyard. These are the first grapes to be picked, before those for Iubileus and La Craie. The gently destemmed grapes are gently fermented in an open-top barrel with indigenous yeasts for 45 days, and the wine matured in neutral barrels until bottling. As the soil is poor, the wine tends to be more exuberant than what they get from the La Craie, which is very balanced. It has an explosive nose with notes of raspberries and violets, even white flowers, but deep down the wine is very mineral with a stony feeling to it. The texture is more ethereal than that of La Craie, and there is a lot more freshness here than in the previous bottling. In fact, once again, I find citrus freshness reminiscent of blood oranges, like I found in the Inseparable. To think that this has an amazingly low pH of 3.45. This feels different and transparent, with austerity on the palate and good symmetry and depth. Unfortunately, only 291 bottles were produced. Bottled in December 2019. The good news is that with the new plantings, there will be a handful more bottles of it in the next few years. But we'll have to wait until the 2023, 2024...