Vista Flores IG

Altos Las Hormigas applied for the IG, and INV Resolution C.11/2012 was signed on 23 March 2012 and published on 26 June 2012. Catena says Don Domingo Catena began buying Malbec from the historic vineyards here in the 1950s. Altos Las Hormigas tells the story of its Terroir Project this way: a blind tasting of a Vista Flores wine led the winery to suspect unusual soil structure, and its soil specialist Pedro Parra went to investigate.

The resolution gives no altitude or soil figures, so the detail comes from producers. Zuccardi puts the zone at 1,000 to 1,050 metres, with a warm-temperate climate and a big gap between day and night temperatures. Its soils come from river deposits and from alluvial fans off the piedmont, with gravel and small stones at varying depths under sand and silt. Altos Las Hormigas' Dyonisos vineyard sits higher, at 1,250 metres, on a secondary terrace of the Arroyo Grande, with sandy clay, more than 40% gravel and 10 to 15% active limestone.

Vista Flores sits lower than San Pablo and has a warmer climate. I'd look for Malbec that keeps its freshness and shows some stony grip, and I'll compare vineyards side by side, since the altitudes quoted span 250 metres.