2019 Concreto

Tasted from a 5-cl mini sample bottle. 100% Malbec made in concrete tanks. 100% whole-bunch maceration.  Inky dark fruit, smoky, bacon fat, wild herbs. Intense acidity that seems to draw spirals on the tongue, whip-cracking tannins, deeply savoury with a wonderful wet-chalk fine-powder texture. Powerfully muscled, like a stallion in full flight, and yet elegant. Deep-seated freshness. Great length. Well worth the price tag. (I see this seems to be out of stock at the time of being published – let's hope they have more on the way...) (TC)

The 2019 Concreto Malbec was produced with a selection of very stony soils, while the Polígonos is more of a village blend. They ferment with 100% full clusters but avoid the carbonic maceration, looking for the expression of very early-harvested grapes and looking for texture. This is very precise and balanced, pure, not overripe but textured. They like a faint note of blood and iron, and it's austere and serious. They do a short maceration to avoid extraction and to show the (mineral) backbone of the wine. 45,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2020.

Concreto is a declaration of intent: “This wine encourages me to accelerate the process we’re already committed to,” said Sebastián Zuccardi. Unaged, this Malbec from Paraje Altamira was fermented in whole bunches and has become appreciably more precise in recent years. Intense purple in color. The nose offers raspberry, blackberry, fresh plum and black olive with hints of violet. The tightly packed, restrained, chalky palate offers firm tannic bones and energy. Bloody and elemental; the concentration is somehow maintained even though the wine feels light and flavorful on the tongue.