With these twelve wines, Juampi Michellini, Matias Riccitelli, Rafael Urreloja and Derek Mossman Knapp illustrate Argentina and Chile’s precocious ability to express the best in any variety
Twelve wines, selected by their maker, four from Zorzal and four from Riccitelli, Undurraga and The Garage Wines Company, were poured
Of twelve wines tasted, only one was Malbec
Jamie Goode and Lisse Garnett report
Matias Riccitelli
Riccitelli wines command near cultish respect from the initiated, allocations always sell out, and yet the man is genuine, softly spoken and modest. He clearly has a great passion for the wines he is making from Patagonia, as well as in Las Compuertas and Monasterio in Mendoza.
Bastardo, Old Vines From Patagonia 2024
Alcohol 12%, 100% Bastardo aka Trousseau. Grapes sourced from a vineyard in Patagonia, planted in the 70s by some unknown lost lover of this Jura variety. We too love this grape for its dark colour, spice and dried floral notes – the lightness and power it seems to convey and its ultimate silky passage down my gullet.
Lighter coloured, this is whole bunch fermented, after being foot crushed to avoid carbonic maceration, and then pressed to foudres. Supple and fresg with iron, blood, red cherries, plums and spice. Focused with nice precision: so expressive. 94/100
Semillon, Old Vines From Patagonia 2024
Alcohol 12%,100% Semillon. An insanely complex, gorgeous wine that will only get better – its honeyed and waxy and fragrant with jasmine, hay, vanilla and candied lemon. Just so pretty, nutty and layered – we were having so much fun that I was unable to contemplate this wine as it deserves, a bottle is an event – I don’t think he makes much and I want more.
Old vines, picked early. Crystalline and light with focused citrus fruit. There’s a bright salinity from some flor aging of some of the wine. Beautiful, expressive, saline and complex. 95/100 (JG)
Pinot Noir, La Carrera 2024 Uco Valley
This is from a new 1700 m site, with some calcareous content in the soils. 30% whole bunch then foudres for 12 months. Ripe but fresh, supple with bright cherry and plum fruit. Very fine and expressive, and juicy and focused. Such presence here. 94/100 (JG)
Chardonnay La Carrera 2024 Uco Valley
From calcareous soils and fermented in foudre. Mineral, fine, fresh and expressive with lovely spiciness. Textural and linear. 95/100 (JG)
Rafael Urrejola, Head Winemaker Undurraga
Modesty again from this highly accomplished winemaker with a voice fit for broadcasting. His family emigrated from the Basque region, from near Gijon, three hundred years ago. They were always connected to wine, but he is the first to turn professional. Cool climate wines became his speciality by default early on in Leyda. He joined what was then a traditional Undurraga in 2007 to initiate Terroir Hunter, a series of radically innovative terroir-specific wines made from carefully chosen and extremely diverse regions. Terroir Hunter has made many experimental wines, driving the need for a sense of place in Chilean viticulture. Urrejola is a champion of Chilean diversity, and he believes multitudinous terroirs, ocean influence and altitude make anything possible in this long, slim country.
Undurraga Terroir Hunter Pinot Noir, Trama 2022
13.5% Alcohol. From a block on limestone in San Antonio Valley, rare in Chile. The climate here is cool and is only five kilometres from the Ocean. Refined, subtle, elegant and fresh, with 25% on stems, gently extracted, indigenous yeast and aged in concrete. Beautifully alive with strawberry, cherry and a fragrant waft of dried aromatic herbs and white pepper. Juicy, sapid and delicious.
Supple and bright with nice concentration, showing sweet raspberry and cherry fruit. Nice compact fruit here with good depth and some crunchy tannins, finishing bright. 94/100 (JG)
Undurraga Terroir Hunter Chardonnay 2023 Limari Valley
13% alcohol. This is a bright, expressive Chardonnay offering orange peel and mandarin notes as well as pear, apricot and spice. But there’s also lovely acidity offsetting this ripe fruit. Lovely. 94/100 (JG)
Undurraga Carmenere Extinto 2022 Cachapoal Valley
14% alcohol. Bright blackcurrant fruit with vibrancy, and some black cherry notes. Focused and rich with some nice spiciness. Intense, salty and mineral. 94/100 (JG)
Undurraga Garnacha Cauquenes 2021 Maule Valley
14.5% alcohol. Garnacha was grafted onto old vines in Cauquenes. Black cherry and blackberry fruit, showing juiciness and a sense of harmony. Lovely. 92/100 (JG)
Juampi Michelini
I was once told Michelini’s are like mushrooms, they spring up everywhere in the wine world – it can be confusing. Juampi aka Juan Pablo Michelini created Zorzal with his brothers Heraldo? And Matias, to create wines that are not market driven but reflect the calcareous mountain terroir from which they came. The Michelini’s have been making groundbreaking wines with little oak and almost no intervention for decades. They drove the vanguard of change in Argentina, harvesting early and looking for cool expression.
Juampi, “Argentina used to be another country in terms of wine but the 90s style of bold Malbec, hot wine – over oaked, over matured, we didn’t know anything about soils then but we had some certainty about altitude, we knew we wanted freshness, finesse and elegance.”
Argentina has moved toward terroir specific wines collectively, but the Michelini’s played a star role in that movement.
Zorzal Malbec, Gran Terroir 2024 Uco Valley
13.5% Alcohol, grown on four parcels of limestone and sand, destemmed and fermented in concrete vats its dry – it has texture, tension, Juampi says they have too much, flavour and texture in the grapes so they pair back through low intervention, and ‘infuse’ the grapes. The wine spends one year in old 500 litre barrels.
Ripe but balanced. Fresh and supple with black cherries, plums and spice. Nice black cherry and blackberry fruit here with a grippy edge. This is really good. 94/100 (JG)
Zorzal Chardonnay Terroir Unico 2024 Uco Valley
12.5% alcohol. Lively and powerful with lively citrus and pear fruit as well as some chalky detail. Lovely freshness with good acidity. Fine and crystalline. 93/100 (JG)
Zorzal Eggo Franco Cabernet Franc 2024 Uco Valley
14.5% alcohol. Matured in concrete eggs. Complex, ripe and rich with lovely blackberry fruit. Rich, full and dense with bold ripe fruit and some grainy tannins. Salty, mineral finish. 94/100 (JG)
Zorzal Chardonnay Parcelario 2024 Uco Valley
This is the ‘grand cru’ level. It’s a block of Chardonnay with sme limestone under the soil. Fresh, bright and linear with nice weight and complexity. Such a beautiful wine. 95/100 (JG)
Derek Mossman Knapp, Garage Wines
Derek Knapp has been leading the Maule charge for a long time, and making some excellent wine under the Garage Wines label. Dry farming, old vines, good farming. And cool labelling, too.
Garage Wines Garnacha Carinena Monastrell Parcel Series Sauzal Vineyard Empedrado The Ploughmen 2019 Maule
14.5% alcohol. There’s a savoury, spicy edge to the nose with ripe blackberry and black cherry fruit, as well as some earthy hints. Grippy, fresh and focused with juicy fruit and a bit of tannin, finishing firm and structured. 91/100 (JG)
Garage Wines Single Ferment Old Vine Pale Rosado 2023 Maule
Pale pink in colour. Fresh, supple and bright with nice acidity and juicy cherry and raspberry fruit, with just a bit of grip. Fine, sappy and delicious. 91/100 (JG)
Garage Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Parcel Selection Renacido Vineyard 2021 Maule
Firm but supple at the same time with bright black cherry and blackberry fruit. Juicy with nice focus and some structure, as well as good acidity. No new oak here, and it works very well. 94/100 (JG)
Garage Wines Truquilemu Syrah Lot 84 2019 Maule
Bold, taut and structured with nice black cherry fruit. Grippy, dense and linear with cherries and plums, and some reductive detail. 92/100 (JG)
