El Payador Mendoza Malbec 2023 (Argentina)

Description

Oak, Raspberry, Spice

Deep red in the glass with a bold and expressive nose of black fruits and raspberries with subtle notes of spicy oak. A medium bodied wine with flavours of red fruit partnered with savoury character and tannin profile and an impressively long, dry finish.

El Payador is a contemporary and fruit driven Argentinian Malbec created in partnership with third generation Mendoza winemaker Jorge Daniel Falasco. The Falasco family owns 3,000h ectares of vineyards in many of the prime locations, including vineyards in premier sub-region 'La Consult a' in the 'Uco Valley' which is 1,100 metres above sea level and offers a perfect micro-climate for producing fresh fruit driven wines. The Payada is a competitive composing and singing of verses native to Argentina, usually accompanied by guitar. The performer is called a Payador and in performance two or more payadores will compete to produce the most eloquent verse. Each answering questions posed by the other, often insulting.

It was to be a warm harvest, but unprecedented frosts turned 2023 into one of the lowest yielding vintages for many years and .kept the winemakers guessing. Early harvest produced high quality fruit and delivered the wines the region is so well known for.

Hand harvested before grape sorting, in vineyard and winery, and complete de-stemming. Fermented in open stainless steel tanks at a cool temperate with hand plunging for seven to tens days. Primarily matured in stainless steel with around 20% matured in seasoned French oak.