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Wine

Your online guide and insider’s tips to Chile and Argentina’s wine regions, wineries and wines

La Celia: The oldest winery in Uco Valley launches new trio of terroir wines

by Amanda Barnes January 18, 2023

La Celia is one of the oldest wineries in the Uco Valley. Although the Uco Valley is often mistakenly considered a new wine region, this southern area of Mendoza has a long history of not only grape and wine production but as an important farming area for Mendoza over the past two centuries. Founded in 1890, although with vineyards planted before, La Celia was part of a key historic estate in La Consulta, which used to span over 40,000 hectares. In its heyday in the early 1900s, there were over 4,000 hectares of vineyards planted!

Today the winery has a slightly more modest holding, of 600 hectares and 380 hectares of vineyards. It is still a very sizeable property in Uco, especially for what is effectively a single vineyard. Within those 380 hectares though, there is quite a bit of diversity. The vineyard spreads over three sub-regions in effect: Eugenio Bustos, La Consulta and Paraje Altamira.

In this video, we explore with agronomist Agustín Leiva and winemaker Andrea Ferreyra the terroir differences between their three sub-zones. We also discover why they have identified three different varieties as best performing in each: Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

After almost a decade of work with soil expert Pedro Parra of Chile and geologist Guillermo Corona of Argentina, La Celia recently launched a trio of single-parcel wines, named after the sub-regions, as their icon range.

Video: Visiting La Celia and its Paraje Altamira, Eugenio Bustos & La Consulta terroirs with Andrea Ferreyra and Agustín Leiva

The single terroir wines of La Celia

I had the pleasure of tasting a vertical of each of these three terroir-driven wines from La Celia starting from their very first vintage in 2017. Although the vintage certainly marks each year differently, there are some key characteristics that run through all the vintages. Not only in terms of the varietal definition, but also the way it expresses itself in La Celia’s terroir:

La Celia Paraje Altamira Malbec

La Celia claims one of the largest holdings of Paraje Altamira vineyards… just under 10% of the vineyards that fall within the GI!

(Read up about the appellation of Paraje Altamira, the GI here!)

This makes it a key player in the Altamira scene, and while a handful of their Malbec wines come from Altamira (as well as their wonderfully crisp Chardonnay), their top wine is from a specially selected plot of the most calcareous-rich soils of their vineyard. It is that calcareous component in the soils, along with the free-draining nature and large stones, and in combination with the high altitude and great diurnal range that produce this wine with typically chalky tannins and great freshness.

The small bunches of grapes, which come from a massal selection of old-vine Malbec, gives it great concentration too. It has the trademark floral note you typically find in Altamira Malbec. And it also carries an elegance and understated style, which is typical of Andrea’s winemaking at La Celia. Andrea prefers foudres and concrete over smaller oak barrels.

La Celia La Consulta Cabernet Franc

This is probably favourite of the trio. La Celia was one of the early wineries to launch a single varietal Cabernet Franc, which is quickly becoming one of the key grape varieties of Argentina to hunt down. This comes from the La Consulta section of their vineyard, inbetween Paraje Altamira and Eugenio Bustos and has a sandy-loam topsoil before a layer of multi-coloured and mineral-rich rocks. The clones in this particular plot

The resulting wine has very fine, gravelly tannins with appealing freshness and a dark, peppery quality. It’s probably the most Bordelaise-style Cabernet Franc I’ve tasted in Argentina. Elegant and savoury.

Their Pioneer Cabernet Franc is also worth trying, as is the darker, more peppery Elite Cabernet Franc.

La Celia, oldest winery in Uco, and their terroir map — Andrea Ferreyra explaining the terroir differences

La Celia Eugenio Bustos Cabernet Sauvginon

Coming from the lowest part of their vineyard, in the sandier soils of Eugenio Bustos, this immediately strikes me as a very cool climate Cabernet Sauvignon. Unlike the fruit-driven, sometimes fruit-bomb, Cab wines typical in most of the New World, here in the southern Uco Valley we seem to get a much more savoury spice-driven Cabernet Sauvignon.

It has acid and some grip, and oodles of spice. It calls out for morcilla on the asado!

January 18, 2023 0 comment

Serra da mantiqueira wine region in Brazil

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A new frontier for Brazilian wine: Serra da Mantiqueira mountain wines

by Amanda Barnes December 27, 2022

written by Amanda Barnes

Two of my ultimate vices, wine and coffee, are rarely produced in the same area but in Brazil’s Serra de Mantiqueira region, coffee plantations and vineyards can be within metres of one another. As can banana trees and grapevines for that matter. This is the new frontier for Brazilian wine — the high-altitude wine regions of Serra da Mantiqueira which spans across Minas Gerais, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

The ultimate guide to the Serra da Mantiqueira wine region

The Mantiqueira mountains, which span 320 km and reach a peak at 2,798 m.a.s.l., have a special mesoclimate that makes a wide range of cultivations possible. This mountainous wine region is not only a haven for wildlife and a mecca for outdoor adventure sports but it is also fast becoming a hub for some of the more interesting wines being produced in Brazil. This is not because of its tropical climate but, in fact, because of its dry, sunny and mild winters.

Winters… Have I lost you? Why mention winters, when surely for wine production it is the hot, wet summer that matters? Up until just a decade ago, that was exactly the problem with these wine regions — the summer and ergo the time for harvesting the grapes was hot and humid, meaning that only early-ripening varieties like Riesling Itálico or those harvested early for sparkling wine could be picked in time before the summer rain set in.

But Serra da Mantiqueira has become renowned today for some of the most exciting red wines in Brazil. This is thanks to the development of the innovative winter harvest technique has been a game-changer for the region. By switching the harvest period from summer to winter, growers are able to take advantage of the spotless blue skies, sunny days and cool nights of the winter months to make wines of character and concentration — creating a boom in quality wines and a real buzz about the potential of this region. It has rapidly changed the shape and reputation of Brazilian wine.

Syrah is undoubtedly the champion of this new wine region for now, although I’ve tasted promising winter harvest Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier too. That said, Syrah is the ideal pairing for the rich pork dishes so typical of the Mantiqueira mountains.

December 27, 2022 0 comment

Antonio Morescalchi interview at Altos Las Hormigas, talking about the history and future of Malbec with Amanda Barnes of The South America Wine Guide

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Taking a chance on Malbec: The story of Altos Las Hormigas with Antonio Morescalchi

by Amanda Barnes December 8, 2022

written by Amanda Barnes

In 1995 two young Italians, Antonio Morescalchi and Alberto Antonini, decided to take a chance on a little-known grape at the time… Malbec. They founded Altos Las Hormigas winery and exported some of the first premium Malbec wines to the USA, championing this rare variety as something new and exciting from Argentina. Since then, the variety has gone on to boom in Mendoza and become the flagship grape variety of the country. In this interview with Antonio Morescalchi, we get the story behind their faith in the ‘cepa francesa‘ and how he sees the evolution of Malbec over the past thirty years and what he anticipates in the years to come.

Taking a chance on Malbec: An interview with Altos Las Hormigas Antonio Morescalchi

Side note: This video interview was filmed right by the water reserve of the vineyard, you might hear the water splashing in the background (and the active bird life!)

“Mendoza was fascinating to us,” explains Antonio about when he and Alberto Antonini arrived in August 1995. “We immediately felt a connection here.”

On tasting some old samples of Malbec being stored in local wineries, Alberto was convinced that this was the grape variety that Argentina should be championing — not the Cabernet Sauvignon that most were investing their energies in. “We felt there was something special here that the world would appreciate.”

In the late 1990s, Altos Las Hormigas was one of the pioneers in exporting premium Malbec and helped put it on the map. “In 1995, there was no market for Malbec. But since then a lot has changed. In the early 2000s, Malbec because a big success. But with big success there’s also a standardisation. And Malbec then became a style and wine that very easy to understand, fruit-driven. And consumers got bored.”

Antonio, Alberto and his team also got bored with those commerical, more simple style. “We wanted something more… and I feel that ten years ago there was [a movement and] shift. Malbec has evolved beyond just the expression of a grape variety, but expression of region.”

The modern Malbec wines of Altos Las Hormigas most certainly do focus on the expression of place, over grape variety. But the portfolio has also grown to extend beyond Malbec in recent years, including other traditional varieties in the region including Bonarda, Semillon, Chenin Blanc and Pedro Gimenez, as well as newer plantings of Cabernet Franc.

December 8, 2022 0 comment

Colheita de Inverno in Brazil, winter wines. guide to Brazilian wine, Brazil wine guide.

Brazil Features Wine Brazil Wine Guide

Brazil’s winter wines & double pruning technique

by Pablo S Fernandez November 24, 2022

written by Pablo S Fernandez

Producers have struggled to make wine in Brazil since the first Portuguese settlers 500 years ago, with the only viable region seen as the very far south of the country — Rio Grande do Sul. However, in recent years, an innovative new technique has enabled producers to make wines across new, and often unexpected, regions. Pablo Fernandez takes a look at the wineries in Brazil using the double pruning system to make ‘winter wines’, or colheita de inverno wines.

While doing his doctorate in Bordeaux, Dr. Murillo de Albuquerque Regina thought the terroir of Bordeaux’s wine regions shared a lot of similarities to his homeland, Minas Gerais. But he knew that the warm, humid summertime climate was quite different and not best suited for quality wine production.

He knew that in the best wine regions of the world, the best conditions before harvesting are sunny days and cold nights, with dry soil. Interestingly, this is exactly how Minas Gerais is in winter — during the months of May, June, and July. Dr Murillo began investigating if it would be possible to change the vine cycle to this time of year, effectively harvesting in winter.

And so he developed the double pruning technique for grape vines. By pruning in January, at the height of summer, you can “fool” the vine, causing it to interrupt its normal cycle and go into dormancy. This trick means the vine instead shifts its cycle to now come into maturation in the winter — when there is less rainfall, more sunny days, and great thermal amplitude. In combination with the altitude of the southeastern plateaus, this helps to achieve optimal maturation and health of the grapes, perfect for the production of wines.

As a result of this technique, which was pioneered less than two decades ago, wine producers across Brazil are looking into a new future of winter wines… ranging from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Bahia, Alagoas, Goiás, Distrito Federal, and even to Mato Grosso.

November 24, 2022 0 comment

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