Malbec, 2020. Rebelde

This selection represents a first for The Wine of the Month Club. We've never featured a wine named after the artist who created the label. Paloma Marquez was born in La Rioja, one of the finest wine districts in Argentina's Mendoza Valley. She began drawing at an early age, but soon was creating works with sound and video that were enthusiastically received.

Her exhibits have been seen in her native Argentina as well as France, other Latin American countries and the U.S. That's what caught the eye, literally, of winemaker, Javier Collovati, whose winery, Valle de la Puerta, is also in La Rioja. It seemed to be a match made in heaven. The name says it all. Rebelde translates to "rebel." The label couldn't be clearer. The winery was built in 2002 on hallowed ground once inhabited hundreds of years ago by the Diaguita's who were indigenous to La Rioja. They were named by the Incas, which translates to "hill people" for obvious reasons.

Malbec is the star of Argentina. It rose so quickly that most people in the wine industry were astonished. It came on the scene some 30 years ago when Argentina was just another South American country trying to sell their wines to the U.S. Nobody knew anything about Malbec except it was the least planted grape in Bordeaux. For some reason, that grape does astonishingly well here. The bright, effervescent fruit literally screams out of the glass and swirls on the palate like few others. An Argentine BBQ of grilled meats and vegetables would be just the ticket.

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