How Mendoza is similar to Ribera del Duero and Why That's Important

Many years ago I had the pleasure of spending a number of days in the Ribera del Duero with Allejandro Fernandez of Pesquera. It was explained to me by his importer, Steve Metzler, a absolute scholar of Spanish wine, that great Ribera was rooted in the ability of a grower to blend Tempranillo from all of the complex microclimates in the DO in order to capture the true essence of what Ribera del Duero was truly all about. That ability comes from a lifetime spent among those various subregions, tasting the fruit, learning the quirks that each plot has as a result of it's exposure, elevation or soil type.

Often this is not the MO of other regions (the MO of other DO's), the best Burgundy comes from single vineyards and Bordeaux and the Rhone are often blends of varieties within an estate. However, in Mendoza the Ribera approach is being met with great success. And while I watch with great trepidation what some of the Big Brand wine companies are doing to Malbec, I believe that those producers who have the depth of knowledge and experience to capture the essence of Mendoza Malbec will be those who maintain the true integrity of the region. When I taste the wines of Hector Durigutti and learn about his approach, I can't help but drawing comparisons to the great Pesquera.

Having spent his earlier years helping to put Altos de Las Hormigas on the map, Hector Durigutti and his brother Pablo have been quietly crafting wonderful wines from Mendoza. While everyone is talking about the Uco Valley and Lujan, Hector is not only able to delve deeper into some of the more obscure subregions of Mendoza but is then able to artfully blend the wines from those regions into something which is truly beautiful. In the instance of his entry-level Malbec reviewed below by Steven Tanzer, he combines fruit from Consulta for tannin and structure, Agrelo for the herbal and balsamic tones and Medrano for fruit intensity.

It is producers like Hector who got us all very interested in great value Malbecs to begin with (wasn't Altos de Las Hormigas among the first important new school Malbecs?) and it will be producers like him that keep Malbec from Argentina from falling into the same pit as Shiraz from Australia.

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