Abremundos Octava Bassa Malbec 2013 Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina 75cl

Abremundos is a project born from a friendship between two Argentines, the winemaker and musician Marcelo Pelleriti and the musician and wine-lover Pedro Aznar. The pair met in 2012 and, over a long conversation on the road from Mendoza city up to the Uco Valley, found they shared a way of thinking. The name and the Octava range play on musical language, with wine and music treated as two sides of the same craft.

Pelleriti is one of Argentina’s most decorated winemakers, the first Latin American to earn a hundred-point Robert Parker score, and he divides his year between Mendoza and Pomerol in Bordeaux, where he consults at several estates. That double life shows in a style that marries ripe Argentine fruit with French restraint and polish.

Octava Bassa is pure Malbec from Tunuyán in the Uco Valley, a high, cool corner of Mendoza that lends the wine freshness and aromatic lift. It is raised for around sixteen months in French barrels, then given further time in bottle before release, so it arrives ready to drink.

The 2013 is a mature vintage now. Expect a Malbec of dark plum and blackberry fruit with a lifted violet note, framed by gentle oak spice and the fine, ripe tannins that high-altitude sites tend to give. Age has added a savoury, mellow layer over that dark fruit.

For Malbec drinkers who want a wine with a story as well as substance, Abremundos delivers both. It is a natural partner for grilled red meat, a proper Argentine asado, or a slow-cooked shoulder of lamb.