One first, 240 bottles: the story of Familia Malbec

There is a bottle at our winery right now with a number on it. Maybe 017. Maybe 152. Every one of the 240 bottles of our first release carries its own number, because every one of them is a first. It is the first wine ever to bear the Familia name.

This is the story of how it came to be, and why we think it belongs on your table this holiday season.

A French grape that found its home in Argentina

Malbec was born in Cahors, in southwest France, where it goes by the name Côt. For centuries, Cahors was famous for its “black wine,” a Malbec so dark and dense it was prized across medieval Europe and even used to add color and muscle to lighter Bordeaux. But Malbec always struggled in France. The grape is thin-skinned and sensitive; it dislikes cold, damp weather, and a catastrophic frost in 1956 destroyed most of the Malbec vines in Cahors and Bordeaux. Many French growers never replanted it.

Argentina told a different story. In 1853, the Argentine government invited French agronomist Michel Aimé Pouget to bring European vine cuttings to Mendoza, Malbec among them. In Mendoza’s sunny, dry, high-altitude desert, the fragile French grape was transformed: it ripened fully and consistently, developing a depth of fruit and a velvet texture it could never quite achieve in Europe.

Today, Argentina grows more Malbec than the rest of the world combined, and Argentine Malbec is recognized by sommeliers, critics, and collectors as one of the great red wines of the modern era. It is Argentina’s signature grape and national pride, the way Cabernet belongs to Napa or Sangiovese to Tuscany. April 17, the date of Pouget’s commission, is now celebrated around the world as Malbec World Day.

A mile high: the Uco Valley

The Valle de Uco sits south of Mendoza city, climbing toward the wall of the Andes, and it is where Argentina’s finest Malbec grows. Vineyards are planted from 3,000 to over 5,000 feet above sea level, among the highest elevations in the winemaking world.

That altitude does two remarkable things. First, the intense ultraviolet light thickens the grape skins, concentrating color, tannin, and flavor. Second, the dramatic day-to-night temperature swings, as much as 40°F, preserve the grapes’ natural acidity and aromatics, keeping the wines fresh and elegant rather than heavy. Pure snowmelt from the Andes irrigates the vines, and the soils are volcanic and alluvial, laced with limestone.

When you taste minerality and freshness in this wine, that is the mountain speaking.

Our friends at Un Buen Año

Our Malbec is grown by Un Buen Año, S.A. (UBA), a premier estate producer led by Guillermo Perezcalva and Alex Campos. Their vineyards are planted in Pampa El Cepillo, a high district in the southern Uco Valley recognized among Argentine viticulturalists for its complex, well-drained soils and a cool microclimate that yields wines of exceptional structure and longevity.

The UBA team has spent decades learning this terroir, the altitude, the diurnal swings, the volcanic soils, and their philosophy mirrors ours exactly: wine is not made in the cellar; it is made in the vineyard.

That shared conviction is why this partnership exists. This is not a distribution deal. It is an exclusive import alliance between two wine families on opposite ends of the hemisphere, and these wines will never be found at a big-box retailer. They come to Georgia through our friendship with Un Buen Año, and they come to you the same way.

The wine itself: Familia Malbec 2024, first release

Grown in Pampa El Cepillo and harvested in 2024, this Malbec was imported, vinted, and bottled by our own team at Doghobble Wine Farm in Nashville, Georgia, under our Georgia Farm Winery license. Only 240 individually numbered bottles exist, each carrying a limited-edition label created for this first release.

Our winemaker, Sean Wilborn, says it best:

“The absolute epicenter of Malbec, the Valle de Uco stands unrivaled as the source of the finest Malbecs in the world. Our Malbec site sits in the heart of the valley at soaring elevation, with dry and hot summer sun and cool desert nights making for a truly exceptional and world-class wine. Distinctive to this region, our Malbec boasts fresh violet flowers with a lingering of black plum, black currant, and dried black cherry, deepened by black pepper, cocoa, and baking spices, cardamom and clove. The minerality steals the show with dusty complexities of wet stone, chalk, and slate, held up by perfectly balanced acidity.”

In the glass, it pours deep purple, nearly inky, with a bright magenta rim, one of the darkest wines you will ever hold up to the light. The texture is velvety and plush; Malbec’s tannins are finer and softer than Cabernet’s, which makes it generous now yet structured enough to age.

The tasting card says it best: medium-bodied, full of attitude, balanced between two hemispheres, with a long finish. It traveled 5,000 miles to get here.

How to serve it, and what to serve it with

Serve Familia Malbec at 60 to 65°F, slightly cooler than room temperature. Fifteen to twenty minutes in the refrigerator before opening is a good rule of thumb. A slight chill sharpens the fruit and florals. Pour into a large-bowled red wine glass and give it a few minutes of air; this wine opens beautifully in the glass.

At the table, Malbec is the wine of Argentina’s asado tradition: grilled and roasted meats above all, along with lamb, mushrooms, hard cheeses, empanadas, and anything kissed by a wood fire. Which is to say, it is the perfect holiday wine. Thanksgiving turkey and everything that surrounds it. A standing rib roast in December. The good table, set for the people you love.

Only one first

There will be many wines under the Familia name. Familia is our new house, a family of wines gathered from the world’s great growing places and finished here in Georgia, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot from Un Buen Año will follow in the seasons ahead.

But there is only one first. And we reserved it for our friends and family before anyone else.

If you received a letter from us, the link in your hands is your key to a private cellar built just for this list, with an exclusive discount waiting inside. It won’t be published, promoted, or repeated. Quantities are strictly limited: when the 240 are gone, they’re gone.

 OPEN THE CELLAR, YOUR PRIVATE LINK 

Salud, and welcome to Familia.