Wine of the week: a malbec in a league of its own

2011 Gouguenheim, Flores del Valle, Blue Melosa Malbec, Valle Escondido, Mendoza, Argentina (£12.95, reduced to £11.45 each if you buy three bottles, until 18 January, Tanners, 01743-234455, Tanners-Wines.co.uk).

Shrewsbury-based wine merchant Tanners is on a roll at the moment. A recent press tasting yielded a cornucopia of beauties and I, sadly, haven't enough space on this page to cover off all of the wines, so I have picked just one and it is a game-changer.

I have been following this Gouguenheim red for a few years and it is one of the few Argentinean malbecs which I feel is truly in balance the fruit, oak and tannin are all superbly assimilated. However, this 2011 vintage is in a league of its own. The vineyards are incredibly high-altitude, over a kilometre above sea level, and this situation lends this wine a coolness and calmness which is evident in every sip.

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Owned by Patricio Gouguenheim, who was a successful Wall Street financier, the property is called Valle Escondido (Hidden Valley) and this cuve is named after an indigenous flower which rather echoes the beauty and colour of the wine. The perfume and deep purple hue is enhanced by oak, which augments the flavours rather than drying them out, as is so often the case in this part of the world.

This is as sumptuous and decadent as a wine five times the price.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.