(Wine-Searcher) - A new series of wines from one of the country's top producers is all about the terroir.

The founders of one of Argentina's most celebrated wineries are preparing to release the first wines from a series of experimental projects that could change how people think about the country's wines.

Santiago Achaval, Roberto Cipresso and Manuel Ferrer were leading figures in the setting up of Achaval Ferrer in Mendoza in 1995. It quickly forged a reputation as a winery that "not only produces exceptional quality but also … remains faithful to the wines' origins", as Adam Brett-Smith of their UK importer Corney & Barrow described it.

The winery was sold in 2011 to the SPI group, which also has shares in Tenuta dell'Ornellaia and Marchesi Frescobaldi. Achaval and Cipresso continue to work for the company; Cipresso consults on the wines, which include the single-estate Finca Mirador, Finca Bella Vista and Finca Altamira.

Both have also spent the last few years searching out the finest sites in Argentina's Precordillera mountain range.

The heights are dizzying – up to 2000 meters (6560 feet), and the 300-400 million-year-old soils are complex.

"This used to be the bottom of the ocean," said Marcelo Victoria, who is closely associated with the new project, as well as being brand ambassador for Achaval Ferrer. "There are layer upon layer of minerals, and every couple of meters they are different. This is like Burgundy in Argentina."

The group, under the loose umbrella of their winery MaterVini, are working on a series of new wines, the first of which is a 200-bottle Malbec from a vineyard they planted in 2006 in what Victoria calls "a desert of rocks" – the 1600m-high Piedras Viejas in Challao, Mendoza.

Then, 1200 kilometers (745 miles) to the north in Cafayate in Salta, they are buying grapes from Yacochuya, a district whose Malbec is highly-prized by Michel Rolland, among others. The wine, called Alteza, will be released in Buenos Aires this year – production is 1800 bottles, which will rise to 5000, Victoria told Wine-Searcher.

A third wine will come from Villavicencio in Mendoza, another – called Valdencanto (the enchanted valley) – will come from the Pedernal valley in San Juan, and others from small plots around the MaterVini winery (a "garage with capacity for 50,000 bottles").