'Estirpe' Malbec
Luján de Cuyo · Mendoza, Argentina
- 125ml
- £7
- 175ml
- £10
- Bottle
- £42
- Grape
- Malbec
- Vintage
- 2024
- Region
- Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza
The short version
Certified organic and Fairtrade — the Fairtrade part is genuinely rare in wine, and covers the vineyard workforce.
Grown at 1,200 metres in high desert, where mountain UV thickens the skins and cold nights hold the acid.
Only 30% sees oak, and in large format — round texture, no vanilla. The crowd wine, done properly.
How it tastes
Aroma & flavour
Sell it with
Short Rib, Beef Fat Chimichurri & Crispy Potato
Chimichurri and Malbec is Argentina's own pairing, put on one plate. The tannin is soft, so it does not need heavy fat to tame it — instead the ripe plum fruit and the alcohol meet the char and the herb-and-vinegar hit of the chimichurri head on. Asado logic, exactly as it is cooked here.
Where to take them next
The detail — if they ask
Fermented in stainless steel at 24–26°C, then through malolactic. Only about 30% sees oak, and in 500-litre barrels and 3,500-litre foudres rather than small barriques — so the wood rounds the texture without leaving vanilla and toast on top. Plum and violet, with tannin that is plentiful but soft.
Pacheco Pereda
- Producer
- Named for the migrant farming families who built Argentina's farms before industrial agriculture arrived — estirpe means lineage. Certified organic and Fairtrade, vegan, with natural corridors kept through the vineyards for biodiversity.
- Region
- Alto Agrelo in Luján de Cuyo, Argentina's original Malbec district, at around 1,200 metres. High-altitude desert: intense UV thickens the skins, and the day-to-night swing holds the acidity that this latitude would otherwise cook out.
- Grapes
- Malbec came from Cahors and became Argentina's own. Deep purple, plum and black fruit, a violet top note — and tannins that are generous but round rather than sharp.
- Soils
- Stones and sand over deep limestone subsoils, irrigated with Andean snowmelt.
Fairtrade in wine is rare — it covers conditions and a community premium for the vineyard workforce, not just the farming.