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Luyan de Cuyo Matias Riccitelli Republica del Malbec 2020
14.5%
0.75L
Intensity
A high-altitude Malbec with extreme fresh fruit flavours from non-grafted, century-old vines.
More infoThis Malbec comes from the Las Compuertas vineyard, found in the highest part of Luyan de Cuyo in Mendoza, at an altitude of more than 1,100 meters. The non-grafted vines, planted in 1927, plunge their roots into the alluvial topsoil, made up of sand and clay, and into a gravelly, rocky subsoil which breaks the surface in places. Flood irrigation, a method traditionally used in Argentina, is employed on this plot of land. The hand-harvested grapes are destemmed and then transferred to open wooden barrels with the help of gravity where natural yeasts start the fermentation process. Extraction is gentle and helped by regular punching down. Left to mature in large wooden vats and French oak barrels, after a year, you’ll find a wine with a brilliant complexity. This Malbec with its dense, deep colour contains vivid aromas. Notes of raspberries, black fruits, spices and coffee rise from the glass. The intense palate is full of pure fruit flavours framed by firm tannins. A wine that goes perfectly with grilled meat.
Lot presentation
Luyan de Cuyo Matias Riccitelli Republica del Malbec 2020
The wine
This Malbec comes from the Las Compuertas vineyard, found in the highest part of Luyan de Cuyo in Mendoza, at an altitude of more than 1,100 meters. The non-grafted vines, planted in 1927, plunge their roots into the alluvial topsoil, made up of sand and clay, and into a gravelly, rocky subsoil which breaks the surface in places. Flood irrigation, a method traditionally used in Argentina, is employed on this plot of land. The hand-harvested grapes are destemmed and then transferred to open wooden barrels with the help of gravity where natural yeasts start the fermentation process. Extraction is gentle and helped by regular punching down. Left to mature in large wooden vats and French oak barrels, after a year, you’ll find a wine with a brilliant complexity. This Malbec with its dense, deep colour contains vivid aromas. Notes of raspberries, black fruits, spices and coffee rise from the glass. The intense palate is full of pure fruit flavours framed by firm tannins. A wine that goes perfectly with grilled meat.
About the Producer Matias Riccitelli
His eponymous estate lies high up in the Luján de Cuyo appellation. Son of Jorge Riccitelli and named Winemaker of the Year by Wine Enthusiast in 2012, Matías now leads this 20-hectare estate, crafting elegant, refined wines from vines rooted between 900 and 1800 metres above sea level. While Malbec naturally features at the core of his range, Riccitelli excels just as brilliantly with Bonarda, Torrontés, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
“My generation has a real advantage: the development of high-altitude viticulture, which didn’t exist before,” he once told our importer. It is precisely this new frontier that Riccitelli and his contemporaries are mastering, taming the sharp diurnal shifts, the cooling winds, and the unique climate of the Andes to produce wines of exceptional finesse and distinction.
A bet that paid off! The estate produced balanced, fresh and harmonious wines, crafted without herbicides with responsible methods. Gravity, concrete vats, amphorae, egg-shaped vats and a judicious use of oak barriques. Matías is also something of a visionary, expanding his horizons with a new estate in Patagonia, a state-of-the-art winery, and a restaurant project. An estate to keep a close eye on, without a doubt.
