Clos de los Siete estate spotlight
Michel Rolland, on the official Clos de los Siete channel, talks through the Uco Valley vineyard that makes this Vista Flores blend.
2019 Clos de los Siete by Michel Rolland Vista Flores, Argentina (94JS)
Michel Rolland's Uco Valley blend from seven French families, James Suckling 94, a 2019 you can open at fifteen dollars.
The 2019 is 50 percent Malbec with 24 percent Merlot, 11 percent Syrah, 7 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 5 percent Cabernet Franc, and 3 percent Petit Verdot: blackberry, blueberry, licorice, and silky tannin, now $15.
Rolland's Uco blend from seven families, not a generic Mendoza Malbec
In 1998 Michel Rolland found 850 hectares at 1,100 meters in Vista Flores and brought six Bordeaux friends with him. Each family built a cellar. Together they still contribute to one wine Rolland blends: Clos de los Siete. The 2019 is 50 percent Malbec, then Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. Dry, cool weather gave tannin and acidity. James Suckling 94: blackberry, blueberry, vanilla, licorice, dark chocolate, sweet tobacco, fine polished tannin, a sleek silky texture. This is the bottle that puts that Uco project on a table at fifteen dollars.
The house
Michel Rolland led seven French families onto 850 hectares in Vista Flores. Monteviejo, Cuvelier los Andes, Diamandes, and Bodega Rolland still feed the blend.
The wine
2019 Malbec-led Bordeaux-plus-Syrah blend. 14.5% ABV. 11 months, one-third new French oak in the barrel portion. Unfined, unfiltered.
The scores
James Suckling 94. Ripe black fruit, licorice, chocolate, silky tannin, a firm flavorful finish.
The drinker
Blackberry and spice first. Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Chimichurri steak.
Blackberry and licorice, then silk and a mineral close
The house 2019 note is bright purplish-red, intense seductive aromas, freshness, light spice, elegant silky palate, red fruit, a hint of minerality, cellaring potential. Suckling found ripe blackberries and blueberries, vanilla, licorice, dark chocolate, sweet tobacco, nut shell, medium to full, fine polished tannins, juicy fruit, walnuts and chocolate on a firm flavorful finish.
Dry weather and temperatures cooler than the historical average. Concentration of tannin, pleasant acidity, a fine structure. Rolland called it elegant and silky rather than a heat-spike year.
Blackberry, blueberry, red fruit, vanilla, licorice, dark chocolate, sweet tobacco, spice.
Medium to full, 14.5% ABV, fine polished tannin, 11 months oak and vat.
Walnut, chocolate, mineral, firm. Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
Seven families, gravity fruit, then Rolland's blend
Hand harvest in 15-kilogram trays, sorted twice, moved by gravity. Cold pre-fermentation maceration, then pump-overs. The 2019 aged 11 months, 70 percent in oak (one-third new French, one-third one-year, one-third two-year) and 30 percent in vat. No fining, no filtration. Alcohol 14.5 percent. Rolland blends contributions from the member cellars into one Vista Flores wine.
Soils are sand, clay, and large pebbles at 1,100 meters under drip irrigation. Planting density is high, about 5,500 vines per hectare, in 1 to 3 hectare parcels.
Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. Steak with chimichurri is the plate.
A French clos at the foot of the Andes
Rolland first came to Argentina in 1988. A decade later he and Jean-Michel Arcaute found 850 hectares in Vista Flores and invited Bordeaux families to plant it together.
The name is the seven: a shared wine from families who also bottle Monteviejo, Cuvelier los Andes, Diamandes, and Rolland.
First vintage 2002. The idea was one terroir wine the partners would make together, Malbec in the lead, Bordeaux structure underneath.
The 2019 is that project in a dry, cool year: Suckling 94, silky rather than heavy, a Vista Flores blend you can actually open.
Chimichurri steak, then a short-rib pot
Uco Malbec wants char, herb, and fat. Skirt steak with chimichurri is the Argentine plate. Short ribs take the chocolate close.
Two plates. One chimichurri skirt steak. One red-wine short-rib braise. Both can take polished 2019 tannin.
Decant 20 to 30 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F in a Bordeaux glass.
Argentine Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri
Char and parsley-garlic sauce for Rolland's Malbec blend.
Why it works: Fat softens tannin. Chimichurri echoes the wine's freshness and spice.
View Recipe for skirt steak with chimichurri (opens in a new tab)
Red Wine Braised Short Ribs
Collagen and slow heat for licorice, chocolate, and a silky 2019.
Why it works: The braise rounds structure. Dark fruit meets the pot juices.
View Recipe for red wine braised short ribs (opens in a new tab)Put Clos de los Siete in the cart
Michel Rolland, Vista Flores, James Suckling 94. Fifteen dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is the Uco blend from seven French families, priced as a Tuesday steak red against a $40 typical retail.
