2022 Marcelo Pelleriti Signature Malbec Uco Valley Mendoza 750 ml

"Find it."

That was James Suckling's advice on Marcelo Pelleriti's Signature Malbec—two words, meant to make sure no one let this bottle slip past. He called it one of the great values in South American wine, and the story behind it explains why.

Pelleriti is one of the most decorated winemakers Argentina has produced. He is the first Argentine to earn a perfect score from Robert Parker, awarded for his 2010 Château La Violette in Pomerol, with 99 points for Château Le Gay the same year. He spends part of every year in Bordeaux and part in Mendoza, and that dual life is written into everything he makes.

His Signature Malbec is where those two worlds meet. It carries a Bordeaux sense of structure and restraint, then fills it out with the depth and generosity of high-altitude Argentine fruit. If a great Pomerol were made from Malbec, it might taste something like this.

The fruit comes from a remarkable site: a block of old, gnarled vines planted in 1907 in La Consulta, in the cool, high-altitude Uco Valley. More than a century of growth has sent their roots deep into rocky soil, and the thin mountain air yields tiny berries with concentrated flavor and firm natural acidity.

The 2022 is a cool-vintage expression, a year in the Uco Valley that favored freshness and lift over sheer power. The result is a Malbec that feels fragrant and agile, with a floral top note and a core of dark berry fruit framed by fine-grained tannins.

It is polished, ageworthy, and unmistakably a wine of place—the kind of bottle that rewards a little patience in the cellar. For anyone who wants to understand why Malbec made Mendoza famous, this is a fluent introduction from a winemaker fluent in two hemispheres.