The 2016 Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae is from a cold and rainy El Niño vintage that broke the mold of typical Mendoza weather. The grapes were picked a bit later and achieved a slow, perfect ripening while retaining very good freshness. They used 50% full clusters in this cooler year. The wine was pressed before it finished fermenting (in concrete), and the juice—without skins, pips or stems—finished fermenting like a white in the foudre. When I tasted the wines after bottling, this felt a bit dizzy, with the aromatics coming and going, sometimes showing a little open. But the wine settled in bottle, and the palate shows the core of acidity that lifts the wine and provides incredible freshness; the tannins are ultra refined, and there is great overall balance. Yields were lower, so they only filled some 3,360 bottles.

100% Malbec from a 1.4-ha parcel in the Adrianna vineyard in Gualtallary at 1,390 m. The calcareous soils are ‘well drained and particularly rich in rhizobacteria, the microorganisms that help vine roots withstand stress and absorb nutrients’ – hence the name. 75% begins fermentation in concrete (50% whole bunch), 25% (juice only) in oak foudre. 18 months in French oak. TA 7.4 g/l, pH 3.45. Still deep crimson with an evolved rim. Complex and remarkably fresh. A savoury envoy from the Andes with structure but good-quality tannins. (JR)