History and Foundation
Founded in 2010 by viticulturist Matías Fraga and winemaker Alfredo Merlo. The project was born from an experimental microvinification in a garage that turned out exceptionally well. Driven by passion, they decided to create a winery with an unwavering premise: to exclusively craft wines from the Malbec grape, but in all its possible expressions and styles.
Architectural Details
Here lies one of the great attractions of the place. The winery, located in the historic district of Las Compuertas, is built entirely with recycled materials and scrap. Shipping containers, old oil pipes, discarded wood, drill rods, and hundreds of recovered metal pieces give it an industrial, raw, and deeply disruptive aesthetic that they call “Trash-Art”.
What to expect on a visit?
Visiting Maal Wines is a completely different experience from traditional wineries. The atmosphere is relaxed, rock-and-roll, and without formalities. Visitors can tour the recycled scrap facilities, enjoy live music, eat outdoors, or participate in the “Cantinas”, laid-back events where pure enjoyment is prioritized, moving away from wine snobbery.
Their Wines
As their philosophy indicates, they only produce Malbec. They craft everything from a Blanc de Noir (white wine made with red Malbec grapes) and rosés, to carbonic maceration Malbecs and highly structured red wines. Each line (Biutiful, Biolento, Imposible, Paciencia) shows a different face of the same grape.
Fun Facts
- The name “MAAL” is actually an acronym that stands for “Malbec As Alfredo Likes”, although it also plays with the idea of doing things “badly” (“mal” in Spanish) in the sense of breaking the traditional rules of the industry.
- In the construction of the winery, not a single brick or new cement was purchased for the structures; it was a massive recycling puzzle.
