2020 Finca Las Cerrilladas
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Tasting notes
Blending three parcels brimming in calcareous soils, one with red caliche, one with white caliche, at 4,462-feet elevation, the 2020 Malbec Finca Las Cerrilladas explodes in white pepper and herb, evoking the natural vegetation that grows around the high-altitude site. Giving, lengthy, and complex, it's a remarkably memorable, complex, and intriguing wine that leaves an undeniable impression. Outstanding in every way, it will age 20-30 years with ease. A multi-generational winery and restaurant in the Valle de Uco under the guidance of winemaker Sebastian Zuccardi, these are mountain wines with a sense of place, expressive of the terroir of specific vineyards, parcels, soils, and altitude. In 2016, the winery was built after dividing vineyards by soil type, and it’s made entirely of concrete inside and out, with concrete vessels also used for fermentation and aging. Its highest-level wines are the Parcel Wines, made to show the uniqueness of a particular parcel of land within an estate vineyard.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
From Gualtallary Monasterio. Manual harvest with bunch selection. Filling of vessels by gravity. Fermentation with ambient yeasts in concrete vessels without epoxy lining . Ageing in concrete vessels. This is my favourite Finca wine. It is elegant with charming yet subtle layers of mountain herbs, wet chalk and wild lavender. In the palate, there is tightrope acidity which keeps the really powdery chalky tannins in a long line over the lingering finish. This is one of the impressively accomplished yet subtle wines with which Sebasti á n is redefining Argentine Malbec. (AB)
The 2020 Malbec Finca Las Cerrilladas hails from Gualtallary in the Uco Valley. The ripe nose presents plum, sage and other mountain herbs, resulting in a balsamic, reductive aromatic profile. Muscular and fleshy on the palate, the taut, chalky flow and balanced juicy acidity make for a velvety but spare mouthfeel before the long finish of rose and lavender. This nuanced, energetic Malbec gets the best out of a warm vintage.
The 2020 Finca Las Cerrilladas has gentler tannins than the 2019; this is different but still very balanced and serious, with the subtle aromas of the wild herbs and flowers, the thyme and rockrose, the grainy tannins and the chalky sensation. This feels every bit as good as the initial 2019. They played with the different plots and found that, in a warmer year like 2020, they used more grapes from plots with pink caliche stone—a formation of dissolved limestone and clay somewhat similar to marl—and less from shallower soils and slopes where they have goblet pruning. It even feels subtler than the 2019... 5,900 bottles were filled in June 2021.