2019 1853 Old Vine Estate Malbec Selected Parcel Uco Valley 750 ml

Marcelo Pelleriti is one of the most decorated winemakers in the world—and certainly one of the most celebrated in Argentina’s history. He boasts 100-point pedigree as the force behind Bordeaux stars Château Le Gay and Château La Violette and is one of the only Argentine winemakers to ever earn a perfect score from Robert Parker himself. He’s made some of the most exciting wines in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

But despite his Pomerol prowess, the 2019 “1853” Selected Parcel is a bottle that screams Argentina—and specifically Mendoza’s Uco Valley.

The name is a reference to the original plantings of Malbec in Mendoza by Michel Pouget—vines that would be propagated across the Uco Valley and then end up supplying France with fresh plant material after the ravages of phylloxera.

That disease ended up wiping out nearly all France’s old vineyards, which makes the 114-year old vines that provide the Malbec for this Selected Parcel bottling some of the very oldest in the world. They’re gnarled and low-yielding, producing tiny clusters of thick-skinned berries that imbue the bottling with copious power and plenty of intensity. It takes two vines to produce enough grapes for a single bottle, and those low yields come across in every glass.