Rio Negro Matias Riccitelli Old Vine Malbec 2022

His eponymous estate lies high up in the Luján de Cuyo appellation. Son of Jorge Riccitelli who was 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.