Vina Las Brujas Malbec 2018

It’s said that when Alexander the Great reached the shores of the Arabian Sea he wept because there were no new lands left to conquer. We sometimes feel like that (arrogant much?), that the wine map has been filled in and there are no new secrets left to uncover. How wrong we both were. Just as there were continents left untouched by Macedonians, the wine world is continuously evolving and new regions constantly emerging.
Uruguay is one of the new frontiers of wine. While a few years ago we only associated the country with Luis Suarez and legal cannabis, today we think of it as one of the most exciting wine producing countries in the world. Slowly becoming known for the Tannat variety, Uruguayan growers are also bottling excellent Malbec.
Vina Las Brujas Malbec has a fresh, vibrant palate of forest berries, red and black cherries, combining with sweet spice on a bed of finely grained tannins and velvety structure. Alexander would probably have wept if he had tried this because it’s so delicious… Big cry baby.
In 1991, Luis Alberto Gimenez and his wife Marta Mendez, with long tradition in the wine business decided to start producing premium wines for the domestic and international market. Strong efforts were necessary to produce unique wine styles representative of the Uruguayan terroir. Focus since the beginning was on the national Uruguayan grape, Tannat. Gimenez Mendez is now one of the leading wine exporters of the country, producing outstanding terroir driven wines.
Gimenez Mendez has three vineyards in the Las Brujas region each with its own distinct microclimate and great emphasis has been placed on matching appropriate grape varieties with plots of land.
The Grapes were hand harvested and manually sorted before destemming and crushing. The must was macerated with its skin at low temperatures before fermentation to extract aromatics without over extracting tannins. Delicate fermentation at temperatures between 14-17°C with selected yeast for 8 days. The wine undergoes oak aging for 3 months before blending and bottling.