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 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!
Read more about La Celia online in our Mendoza winery guide!