2015 Altos Las Hormigas Malbec

60,000 cases – their largest-production wine using 35% own fruit. Hand picked, fermented with ambient yeast in tank, aged in concrete for a year. They tend to acidify and did so in this vintage – they start harvesting at pH 3.5 but at the end of picking you are at 3.8 and have to adjust it a little. Minimum punchdowns – twice then once a day. Deep cherry red. Ripe, spicy bramble fruit and a touch of savoury black olive and sweet red cherry. Very smooth and dark fruited, with just a hint of chocolate (even though there is no oak influence), balanced by freshness through to the finish. Silky smooth tannins. They are after – and have achieved – drinkability. (JH)

The juicy and unoaked 2015 Malbec Clásico represents the variety in the Mendoza province, with bright red fruit, approachable and easy to understand through sourcing grapes from different zones, but looking for cooler soils rich in sand and with some clay and lime. 2015 represents a big change for this bottling, which has a higher percentage of grapes from the Valle de Uco. The destemmed grapes fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and the wine was kept in concrete vats for one year before bottling. The fruit is ripe, fruit-driven, with a juicy palate, with fine tannins and subdued minerality. The wine is subtle and balanced, easy to drink. An improvement over past vintages. This has to be one of the best values in Mendoza. There are eight different lots, totaling some 750,000 bottles.