2018 Marcelo Pelleriti Malbec Signature Uco Valley Mendoza 750 ml

“Find it.”

James Suckling didn’t mince words in his 95-point review of the 2018 Marcelo Pelleriti Signature Malbec—he wanted to make sure everyone who read it ended up with a bottle, which he called “one of the great values in South American wines.” 

Pelleriti’s Malbec challenges the best big reds of France and California, which makes sense: He’s also the 100-point force behind Bordeaux stars Château Le Gay and Château La Violette. One of the very few Argentine winemakers to earn a perfect score from Robert Parker, he’s making some of the most exciting wines in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

We have to thank our friend Ted for introducing us to this stellar Argentine red—he’s one of those guys who always has a hidden gem in his back pocket. So when we got a call telling us to expect samples of a Malbec from 100-year-old vines, we suspected we had a winner.

What we didn’t expect was a staggering Malbec that blended elements of Bordeaux winemaking with Mendoza’s expressive fruit. It was crafted by a vintner who calls Argentina home but earned 100 points from Robert Parker for his 2010 Château La Violette and 99 for his Château Le Gay from the same vintage. So if top-tier Pomerol were made from Malbec, we thought, it would taste like this.

In other words, this is what happens when you give Pelleriti a vineyard of old, gnarled Malbec vines planted 107 years ago in the cool, high-altitude Uco Valley in Mendoza, which yield tiny grapes with intense concentration.

This is a stunner of a bottle that has it all. Do not go without it.