Colome Salta Altitude Extreme Malbec 2016

At a staggering 3,111 metres above sea level, the ‘Altura Máxima’ vineyard is one of the world’s highest and represents viticulture at its most extreme. Despite Hess being labelled “loco” (mad) by many for even contemplating such a feat, he acquired the land and planted there in 2004. The team created a dirt track through the wild and remote scrubland to reach the previously inaccessible vineyard. The extreme conditions proved too challenging in the early years, but fortune favoured the brave, and in 2012 they proved that the impossible was possible and released their first ‘Altura Máxima’ Malbec, a powerfully aromatic and intense wine, that is, in Tim Atkin’s words “one of the great wines of the world”.