Wine tastings come in many guises. After decades of participating in verticals, horizontals, blind and other tastings, I thought I'd tried them all. But not long ago I discovered a new genre, the high-tech tasting.

A group of U. S. wine professionals were invited by e-mail to taste eight Argentinean malbecs with the winemaker of three of them and the American importer of all of them. Those who accepted received samples of the wines and instructions on how to join the Web tasting.

On the designated day, I opened my eight bottles several hours beforehand and lined them up on the dining room table with a large Bordeaux-shaped glass for each. I took a taste of each just to get an impression of the wine before it had a chance to breathe.

Six of the wines were 100 percent malbec and two were malbec/cabernet sauvignon blends. Malbec, originally used as a blending grape in Bordeaux, was planted in the Mendoza region of Argentina in the 19th century. Mendoza is the fourth-largest wine-growing region in the world. Its Lujan de Cuyo and Uco Valley are acclaimed for the rich and classy red wines they produce. Until the late 1980s, there were 50,000 acres of malbec planted there in the foothills of the Andes mountains, and today there are 700,000 acres. It says a lot about how much people love this grape.

Our tasting wines were from those two top growing areas, a region that stretches 100 miles from top to bottom. Chosen to show a range of styles, they were made from grapes grown on un-grafted vines from nine to 81 years old. Old vines normally produce smaller crops with more concentrated flavors and silkier tannins. It is not unusual for un-grafted vines to live for more than 80 years. The altitude of the vineyards producing the wines varied from 2,500 feet to 4,300 feet. Higher altitude plays an important role in the quality of the grapes by cooling the vineyards at night and lowering the average 24-hour temperature, thus giving the grapes a longer and slower ripening period or what is often referred to as "longer hang time." The average yield of the vineyards was 3 tons per acre and the wines all spent from 10 to 16 months in small French oak barrels. These details normally indicate higher quality.

At the appointed hour, I sat at the dining table with a laptop and logged on to the Web site to find our hosts on the screen welcoming our group from an office in Mendoza. It was as though Argentinean winemaker Roberto de la Mota, who works for Mendel, and Ed Lehrman, co-founder of wine importers Vine Connections, were sitting across the table and we all were tasting together.

As they discussed the attributes of each vineyard, the screen showed detailed maps of the region. Roberto and Ed told interesting anecdotes about the wineries and the winemakers and the special characteristics of each vineyard. As they spoke, the participants could comment or ask questions by typing into a chat space on the screen. The chats appeared on screen and questions were answered by the Mendoza team.

We tasted the following wines:

La Posta Pizzella Vineyard 2007, 100 percent malbec, $18

La Posta Paulucci Vineyard 2007, 100 percent malbec, $18

Susana Balbo Malbec 2007, 90 percent malbec, 10 percent cabernet, $27

• Mendel Malbec 2007, 100 percent malbec, $30

• Tikal Amoria 2008, 100 percent malbec, $33

• Luca Malbec 2008, 100 malbec, $36

• Mendel Unus 2006, 70 percent malbec, 30 percent cabernet, $50

• Mendel Finca Remota 2006, 100 percent malbec, $115

The last five wines -- marked with a • -- all scored between 90 and 94 points in wine-rating magazines.

None of these wines is stocked in PLCB stores; however, three of them are available in different vintages.

Susana Balbo Malbec 2006, PLCB #29081, $24.99

Tikal Amoria 2006, PLCB #10336, $28.99

Luca Malbec 2007, PLCB #23071, $31.99

It took about 70 minutes to taste eight wines, hear the history of malbec in Mendoza, learn about the terroir of the region, discuss characteristics of the wines and comment on taste profiles. Having the winemaker and importer present and answering technical questions was a tremendous plus. Although I have visited Mendoza and was not entirely unfamiliar with many of the points we covered, I found this tasting to be a great way to stay current on the region and its wines.

My favorite wine? I think it had to be the Luca. It was inky purple with aromas of extra-ripe black cherries and raspberries. When aerated, a garden of roses and violets emerged, then cedar, smoke, chocolate and anise. The flavors are concentrated and the acid balance supports a long finish. A wine that will benefit from a few more years of cellaring or at the least, decanting.

Although this was the first, it hopefully will not be the last of my chances to share a tasting with colleagues from around the country and a winemaker thousands of miles away.

Viva la technologie!

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