2013 Malbec Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae

The Adrianna Vineyard in Gualtallary is located at almost 5,000 feet elevation. The soils in this Mundus Bacillus Terrae 1.4-hectare parcel are filled with scattered limestone and marine deposits that covered the region millions of years ago. The limestone layers are well-drained and particularly rich in rhizobacteria, the microorganisms that help vine roots withstand stress and absorb nutrients. Thus, the name 'mundus bacillus terrae' or 'elegant microbes of the earth'. Soils are alluvial, calcareous. Fermentation in 225-litre oak barrels and 500-litre French oak roll-fermenters with ambient yeasts at 25-30 °C, 15-day maceration. Co-fermented with 1-3% Viognier. Aged 24 months in French oak barrels. TA 7.3 g/l, pH 3.55. Horribly heavy bottle but lovely long cork. Very deep crimson. Dark and rocky on the nose with the merest hint of oak sweetness. Seriously mineral, almost northern Rhône but still with the dark-fruit spectrum of Malbec. Incredibly fine texture, bone-dry, subtle but definite, extremely fine tannins. A very slight perfume on the palate though mostly it is elegantly dark and sober yet still fresh and lively. Beautifully modulated and long, the texture already surprisingly silky. (JH)

There are three separate bottling from the Adrianna vineyard, one of them the 2013 Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae, from the shallow and limestone soils with a south-facing, cold exposure, that was coupled by a cool year. This has higher acidity and citric, effervescent acidity combined with chalky tannins providing length and freshness. This is terrific. 2,000 bottles were filled in December 2015.

(these vines on shallow limestone soil are protected from the worst of the afternoon sun; there's huge organic material in the soil by Argentine standards, notes Alejandro Vigil): Bright saturated ruby to the rim. Crushed blackberry and smoky, saline soil tones on the nose. Utterly imploded on the palate, with penetrating acidity and saline minerality contributing to the wine's great inner-mouth tension. Powerfully structured, juicy, tannic wine with a long life ahead of it. "In a more Nebbiolo style," notes Vigil, who fermented the wine in old barrels and aged it in 2,000-liter barrels, none new. With a pH of 3.4, this wine should age at a snail's pace and may ultimately be the best of these 2013s. According to Vigil this 1994 planting was the first in Gualtallary.