Altar Uco - "Edad Moderna", Malbec, Gualtallary, Argentina (2021)

TASTING NOTES

Zippy and refreshing, this is not your average Malbec. Loads of roasted red pepper, earth, green herbs, chargrilled jalapeño, plum, spice and cherry mocha. Some notes of iron with depth and complexity, nuance and balance. 

Altar Uco is the latest endeavor from Maia Echegoyen (viticulturalist) and Tupungato-based winemaker Juan Pablo Michelini. Affectionately known as Juampi, he also serves as the head winemaker at his family’s winery, Zorzal.

Juampi aims to produce “quiet wines” which require as little human intervention as possible. “Altar Uco is a continuous and eternal project. A constant search to achieve even more pure and delicate expressions of the terroir, which includes not only the place where the grapes are grown, but also, and perhaps the most significant for us, man’s interpretation of that place.” 

The ‘Edad Moderna’ (Modern Age) series are wines defined by their shorter time in the winery, aged briefly in cement pools and then bottled. Here, he’s striving for lively, textured wines meant for enjoyment in their youth. A further line with in the brand (‘Edad Media’ [Middle Age]) are wines matured in a mixture of French oak barrels (some new and some second-use) in addition to amphora.

Altar Uco Edad Moderna Malbec is made with 100% Malbec from old vineyard estates  at 1,200m elevation located in San Jose, El Peral, Gualtallary and Tupungato. Hand-harvested and fermented with native yeasts in cement pools prior to a short aging in cement tank over 6 months.