2005 Bodega Sottano JUDAS ****

On my way to pick up some Mosel Saar Ruwer wines the other night I happened upon this tasting of Argentinian wines, featuring not unsurprisingly four malbecs, one cabernet sauvignon, and one blend. I'm no malbec expert, but the Argentinian malbecs I have tried have been generally very good, and good values. The last wine I tasted has been on my mind ever since.

Bodega Sottano only produced 2014 bottles of its "Judas," a 100% malbec from the Finca Sottano Vineyard in Perdriel, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, one thousand meters above sea level. Picked by hand in the early hours of the morning, then fermented in 5000 liter stainless steel tanks with "selected yeasts" (seven days cold; 35 days total), Judas was aged in all new oak, 70% French, 30% American, for eighteen months, prior to bottling unfined and unfiltered.

But all of that is back story to how this wine came to be. Bodega Sottano is a partnership of three brothers, Diego, Pablo and Mauricio Sottano, whose roots in Mendoza reach back to their Italian ancestors in 1890. According to the legend I was told by an unquestionably disreputable distributor (wink wink), this wine had originally been intended to serve as the family's "private reserve," but one brother bottled it and released it on his own, thus earning him the name "Judas." Whether the legend is true or not (and I don't believe it) the wine speaks for itself.

Deep plum color; unquestionable vanilla notes predominate on the nose, but the palate is firm and juicy, with blackberries and cream, rounded out by fat sweet tannin. No idea how long to cellar this one; it's hard to resist now.