BEMBERG ESTATE VERTICAL TASTING: BRINGING OUT THE BEST OF ARGENTINE MALBEC

The Bemberg family, owners of Trapiche and other well-known Argentine wineries in Grupo Peñaflor, has been transforming  a selection of unique parcels into their own project for more than a decade: Bemberg Estate Wines. Together with renowned winemaker Daniel Pi and winegrower Marcelo Belmonte, they have showcased the best parcels from the family’s collection of vineyards across the country since the 2013 vintage: from Cafayate in Salta down to the Uco Valley in their micro-terroir series La Linterna, alongside Pionero, a malbec-based, Bordeaux-inspired blend. We tasted their short history and found that their terroir-specific, precision-driven style results in wines that are not only approachable in youth but have the structure to age.

Daniel Pi joined via Zoom recently in the Hong Kong office to taste five consecutive vintages of Bemberg Estate Wines Malbec Gualtallary Valle de Uco El Tomillo Parcela 5 La Linterna, as well as five vintages of Pionero.

Parcela 5 is made with a low-intervention philosophy with wild yeasts, like all their wines, and is only released after four years. From the 2014 vintage to the most recent 2018 release, the wines showed freshness and minerality, with a supple tannin structure. The 2014 vintage is now starting to take on mushroom hints along with a salty, oyster shell minerality, but 2015, ‘16, ‘17 and ‘18 are still predominantly in their primary fruit stage.

Pi discussed the challenging 2016 vintage: an El Niño year with heavy rains, leading to difficulties with rot across the country. He explained how the adaptations made in the vineyard to expose the fruit and increase airflow have become a permanent change in how the vineyard is managed. The 2016 was noticeably richer, fuller and more polished, while 2017 and 2018 are both perfumed expressions, with ‘18 displaying a compact yet vibrant core of wild berries.

We then tasted five vintages of Bemberg’s Gualtallery Valle de Uco Pionero: 2013 to 2018, omitting 2016, of which there was only a tiny production. Pionero is a vintage-dependent blend of 60 to 65 percent malbec with cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, all from El Tomillo, the same vineyard as Parcela 5.

Tasted from magnum, the 2013 impressed: complex, structured and still fresh, it is only just entering the spotlight drinking window now. The younger vintages showed more youthful dark fruit character and beg for more time in the cellar. While malbec provides approachability in youth, it was fascinating to see cabernet sauvignon’s tendency to “rule the blend” with time, in terms of tannin structure and graphite- and earth-like minerality.

Located in Gualtallary in the Valle de Uco, El Tomillo vineyard exemplifies the dynamic mindset of Argentine grape growers and winemakers, but it also shows how producers have grappled with the very real effects of climate change. When it was planted in 1998, Gualtallary was known for being cooler and more suited to varieties with shorter ripening seasons, like chardonnay and pinot noir. Bemberg’s plot was planted to 23 hectares of chardonnay and seven hectares of malbec. But in 2012, warmer conditions encouraged planting of more malbec as well as cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. “Global warming has allowed us to grow from chardonnay in 1998 to cabernet sauvignon today,” Pi said.

Already at a high altitude of around 1,300 meters, it is not uncommon now for vineyards to be planted at 1,600 or 1,700 meters in the region.

“Today we are pushing the border of growing,” Pi said. “Everything is moving up.”

– Claire Nesbitt, Associate Editor