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Argentina has adopted malbec and has run with the varietal.
It was appropriate that World Malbec Day recently was celebrated with Trapiche winemaker Daniel Pi via Zoom tasting. While it was technically a day before WMD, the three, single-vineyard Trapiche wines represented a panoramic view of malbec at its best.
With Pi’s veteran touch, Trapiche has grown into one of the largest malbec producers in the world. Of its 15 million cases, 70% are malbec. The malbec program has been part of the winery since its inception in 1883. Pi said all of the malbec planted around the world doesn’t equal the acreage Argentina has dedicated to the red grape.
“We are proud and lucky to have malbec in Argentina,” Pi said. “We have a diversity of material brought before phylloxera (an insect pest) in Europe, and have original materials planted in Bordeaux in the middle of the 1850s. During the 1990s, we started to use irrigation, and the old material was grafted to disease-resistant American root stock. Today, we have a mixture of grafted and ungrafted material.”
Each wine tasted was part of the Trapiche Terroir Series and had a connection to the vineyard from which they were sourced. Reflecting on a varied collection of altitudes and soils, Pi was in his element as he told stories about the vineyard owners, elevation changes and impact of the elements on the growing season.
From vines that are 75 years old, Trapiche Malbec Finca Coletto 2017 ($33) was the most fruit forward of the three wines. Coletto is an Italian immigrant who owns and farms the vineyards that are planted over 4,000 feet above sea level.
Dark fruit dominates here – plum, blackberry, black cherry – all balanced by a fresh acidity. The vineyard is pushed to the extremes at elevation, and the results show.
“It’s from a vineyard located high in the mountains,” Pi said. “It has lower tannins, high acidity and is very drinkable. I’d call it the classic malbec style. These are vines planted at their limit, we can’t get water on the western edge of the vineyard, so there are no plantings because we can’t get water up there.”
Named as an homage to a Bolivian immigrant who owns and farms the property, Trapiche Malbec Finca Orellana 2017 ($39.95) is a high-density planting at 3,200 feet above sea level. The warmer temperatures at lower altitude come through, as the fruit flavors are a little riper, the tannins a little grippier, and the intensity more in your face.
There are blackberry, black currant, graphite and bigger tannins. Pi said the wine “gives him the goosebumps.”
“I like it a lot,” Pi said. “(The owner) Fausto and I are friends. The wine reminds me of him. I get a little stewed meat on the nose.”
Trapiche Malbec Finca Ambrosia 2017 ($40) had a playful bounce between blackberry and blueberry flavors and was the lightest-bodied wine. Pi noted the “chalky tannins were not as smooth as the other wines.” There’s a more concentrated, ripe fruit sensation, but the dried rose petal note and chewy finish made the wine distinct.
With a long history of malbec production, Trapiche is in constant change. Pi has grasped the unique terroir and wants it to be the showcase.
“We are always trying to do the best,” he said. “We realized in the early days that too much oak character caused us to lose the terroir. So what we are trying to show is the interest of the soil, not the barrels or aging. I want to communicate these things on the label, to our marketers. I want to speak about the place; it is much more important.
“Barrels can be the same around the world, but you can’t move the place to another part of the world,” he said. “It’s the most important thing today. We are trying to communicate the sense of place, and we are comfortable with the style we are getting into.”
• James Nokes has been tasting, touring and collecting in the wine world for several years. Email him at jamesnokes25@yahoo.com.