A medal can get a wine onto your radar. It cannot tell you what makes the winery worth remembering. That distinction matters in Mendoza. International recognition has become almost routine here. Argentina continues to collect medals, scores and global attention, while the Valle de Uco has developed into one of South America's most closely watched wine regions. So when five recent international results brought Bodega Urqo to my attention, I was interested in the wines, certainly. I wanted to know what sat behind the results. What does a relatively young producer look like when it is still establishing its identity in a region already crowded with famous names? Urqo's answer begins with the Urquía family and three vineyard sites across the Valle de Uco: Finca Algarrobos and Finca Durmientes in Tupungato, and Finca Mirador in Los Chacayes. Altitude, soil and site provide the geographical framework. Malbec is the familiar starting point. Chardonnay opens another door. That combinat...

  After several years of living in Argentina, I have stopped describing Mendoza simply as wine country. That phrase is accurate, but it leaves too much out. From the Caribbean, I arrived with a fairly uncomplicated idea of Argentine wine, Mendoza meant Malbec. It did not take long to realise that the interesting part begins when you stop asking whether a wine is from Mendoza and start asking where in Mendoza it comes from, what the producer wanted to express and why the wine tastes the way it does. That is where the Uco Valley keeps my attention. The valley has become one of the most closely watched parts of Argentine wine, yet it continues to resist easy definition. Gualtallary, El Cepillo, Paraje Altamira and Vista Flores each bring different possibilities, and Vinos de La Luz works across those areas. Its Callejón del Crimen vineyards are identified by the winery at approximately 1,350 metres in Gualtallary, 1,200 metres in El Cepillo, 1,100 metres in Altamira and 1,080 metres i...