Bodega Colome Altura Maxima Salta Malbec 2018

Bodega Colome Altura Maxima Salta Malbec

Region: Calchaquí Valley, Salta, Argentina

Vintage: 2018

Bottle size: 75cl

Grape: Malbec

ABV: 15.5%

This wine is intense, dark purple in colour with aromas of white flowers, red berries and black fruit with a touch of spiciness and minerality. The wine is beautifully textured with a long, opulent finish and elegant tannins.

The fruit comes from Altura Máxima, one of the highest vineyards in the world, which is located in the northern part of the Calchaquí Valley at over 3,100 metres above sea level. The north-west facing slopes mean the vineyard receives lots of sunlight, which aids ripening. Warm days and cool nights (a diurnal range of around 25°C) ensures that the fruit develops wonderful aromatic characters and retains good levels of acidity. The true expression of the Malbec grape comes from the vineyard’s extreme altitude, the soil composition (alluvial, sandy soils with a high percentage of granite) and the semi-arid desert climate. The vineyard also receives much more sunlight and much less UV protection than vineyards at lower altitudes, which produces thicker skinned grapes giving a more robust mouthfeel supported by fresh acidity.

Bodega Colomé was established in 1831 and is the oldest working winery in Argentina with one of the world’s highest vineyards. Perhaps because of this great tradition, which is allied to the dynamism it displays today, Bodega Colomé was chosen again by Tim Atkin MW as one of his ‘First Growths’ in the classification of Argentinian wineries he made for his 2020 Argentina Report.