Canopus, "Pintom Rosado" 2021

In El Cepillo, a village nestled in the southern reaches of Mendoza in Argentina's Uco Valley (historically, a center for conventional wine), at nearly 1000meters in the direction of the sky, Gabriel Dvoskin had found his place. Long a traveling musician, writer, and war correspondent, the grape bug had bitten him in the '90s, eventually leading to a full transition in careers after some formative apprenticeship years at highly reputed estates in big-time wine regions (Burgundy, Rhône). Finding the off-the-beaten-path southern end of a conventional wine region made sense for Gabriel's eventual solo project -- after all, the wines of Barolo & the Mosel & Burgundy had allured him to this oenological life. But something a bit more creative and unmapped (viticulturally) drew his passion -- and so, in El Cepillo where it was long considered far too cold to make wines, Gabriel planted vines. From 2009 on, he's biodynamically grown and cultivated Malbec and Pinot Noir vines to craft wines of extreme precision and far more verve than you would otherwise expect when a bottle of rosé or red lands on your table and you see it says Mendoza, Argentina. Really special mountainous purity from the most unexpected - and thus the most likely - of places.