Wine Pick: Catena High Mountain Vines Malbec 2012

From sunny Argentina, this wine is perfect for a cool autumn weekend.

Wines produced from malbec grapes are perfect for crisp weather, and offer more flavour and style diversity than you might think. Although a French grape, malbec found an ideal home in the sunny, lofty, arid climate of Argentina’s Andean foothills. Argentina is currently the world’s main producer of malbec, with more than 76,000 acres of vineyards planted across the country. (France, where malbec features in the region of Cahors, runs a distant second at just over 13,000 acres.)The beautiful Catena winery in Mendoza pioneered the growing of malbec in Argentina, most importantly at high elevations. No producer in the world has contributed more to the study of the effect of altitude on grapes. Malbec grown at four distinct altitudes (spanning 920 to 1,450 metres) in the Andean foothills brings intense red, black, and blue fruit flavours, along with a powerful mineral frame, supple tannins, and crisp acidity. Fruit-forward but with wonderful freshness and harmonious balance, you can relax with a generous glass, or drink it as the Argentines would, with grilled steak and zesty chimichurri sauce.Catena High Mountain Vines Malbec 2012$21.79Argentina +478727(Note: This wine is included as part of the Decanter column in our October 2015 issue, but is accompanied by the wrong review. We apologize for the error.)