Where is Altamira?
Altamira
is a 10,000 acres (aproximately) field area just SouthWest from La Consulta
Town, at San Carlos, Uco Valley´s southern district, 100 miles South
from Mendoza City, at the Andes Range foothills.
This
land, San Carlos district, 150 years ago, was still being defended by
the original people, the Pehunches, from the spanish invaders.
100
years ago, it started to be developed, vineyards, appels, plums,
quinces, Alamos forrests, packing industries, anyway, a nice fruit
industry at San Carlos District, all that, thanks to Eugenio Bustos,
the main Landlord in the region, even the train´s got there,
finishing its way to Mendoza at his very own winery, La Celia, named
after his daughter. You can still watch his 150 years old house in
the way to La Consulta, just at the corner of 92 Road and San Martin
Av., a pionneer.
Many
wineries had been installed at the region, big ones, mainly cooperatives or Maipu´s district giants´s satellites, like Giol or
Tomba or Arizu, those wines where mixed with everywhere wines at the
giants massive wineries at Maipú, and sended bulked in trains to
Buenos Aires, then bottled and distribuited, ancient history.
Although some of these cooperatives still exists and produce quite good wines, it´s been a
change in the last 20 years, and many not so big wineries has
been emerging in the region. Dozens of small grape producers with no more than
100 acres elaborates excellent wines all over the place,
and still growing.
What´s so special about Altamira?
The
Soil, absolutely the soil, it is formed by a spill of rocks that the
Tunuyan River makes when it gets off the mountains, that happened at mid
pleistocene, meaning 2,5 millions years ago, this is called ´The Graben´, nice
wine name.
The
rocks, gravels and sands where deposited for millenials onto the zone making a
truly special soil, with lots, but I mean lots of Caliche, or
Calcrete, as hard as you can imagine, limestone, sand and a very shallow level of clay,
making these a very painful soil for agriculture, the water retention
levels are very low, absolutely poor soils, almost no fertility at all, but because its whiter color the light´s reflection is high.
This
is great for vines, poor soils, great sun, clean air, all these should be great for vines, but is not as easy as it
looks. Balance betwen plantation density and yield production must be
accurate in every little variation in soil composite, and that´s new in Altamira, ok, do
not misunderstand me, there are many old vineyards lots that are
balanced because of empirism and good sense, this are the greatest
ones, now, the new vineyards, with their PH D Managers, have science
and technology to reach perfect balance, so it is just a matter of
time.
This
Graben area is about 100,000 acres big, so it will be a time where
regulations and political bounderies should come to a logical
solution for a lot of vineyards that, although they share almost the
same soil, are not into the IG (geografic indication) Altamira.
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| The Graben |
And that gives what to wines?
Well,
that´s not an easy thing to explain, mostly because wines are
technology products, I mean, Nature gives logical and People puts
tech solutions to any given problem.
Plantations
density, varieties, clones choosing, pruning, irrigation, fertilization,
harvesting time, everything is product of People minds, and People
are different, but lets see the explainable things.
The
Soil has high pH, great alcalinity, low fertility and hard profile,
so the plant´s root system is going to have big problems to develop, that means that the vegetative part is going to be
restricted, then the plant is going to choose sexuality in order to
reproduce itself, grapes.
The
Clima is dessertical, very high temperature by day, very low by
night, frozen risks and damage every spring, big hail storms during
summer, all that thanks to altitude and mountain proximity. Not an
easy climate to work with indeed.
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| Stone Soil |
If
we talk about Malbec grapes there is one thing that overwhelms
everything, Color, rich, deep and dark red color with bursts of blue, due to a skin thickness beyond bulletproofing, for more than
60 years Malbec from San Carlos was all about color, even more, they
were bought by its color, it suited perfectly with the poor color and massive yields wines from Maipú, Junin and Rivadavia vineyards´s., that
degenerated into high yields and low wine quality, but with
great color.
But
the 80´s changed everything, after the late 70´s Crack at Mendoza´s
wine industry, things had to change, yields had to drop, then quality start raising.
Yield reduction was everything Altamira needed in order to enter the High Quality Wine World, the wines started to develop wide aromas ranges, flowers, spices, dark fruits and berries, fresh herbes, scents florishing into wines by magic, the high pH soils gives tartaric acid a burst that is very noticeable in young wines, but sometimes needs to be hold in order to level down mouth feelings of tannins, the tannins react well in the palate, they are hard, but not rough, like a mild sandpaper that never gets wasted, giving estructure solid enough to hold the high alcohol content, yes they are alcoholic, and we love that, obviously because the acidity makes the pungent feeling soft and easy to enjoy, so the wines are full bodied, full scented and full enjoyables. What else?
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| Nice Old Malbec Vines |
Winemaking
Well, here it gets pretty amazing, old school traditional, top trending, experimental, classical, mindblowing, you name it, every kind of winemaking technique is taking place into this little world, every woman and man who knows winemaking are eager to grab some of this bunches and put their fantasy over them, nowadays it should be no less than 150 labels from Altamira IG, awsome, it is a playland for the senses, diversity plus diversity.
There are about 1,000 acres with vineyards 40+ years old, and the agronomic engineers line up in order to get some of those grapes, the rest had been renewed during the last 20 years.
The most renowneds wine writers and critics around the world are amazed about this place, 88 and 89 points are now thresholds for wine quality in Altamira, unthinkable only ten years ago, most of the 10 Majors Wineries in Mendoza has at least one label with the Altamira IG. Even more, Zuccardi opened a espectacular winery in the zone that you can´t miss if you´re around.
The young oenologists are experimenting with everything you can imagine, stripped (non epoxi) anphora shaped concrete vats, co-fermenting different varieties at the same time, trying not to invade de wine flavor with too much wood, harvesting lot by lot, selecting berries at he table, they are fierless and means no harm, dreams and fantasies that make our palates joyfull.
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| Aliens are back! |
And its not about Malbec only, you should try the Cabernet Franc wines, fullbodied and full of character, the stunishing Pinot Noir, with nice and sharpening but elegant acidity that makes you want more, the whites, such as Semillon goes for estructure and rich bodies, some Tempranillo´s old Parrales still exists and will surprise you in an excellent way, you see, the grapes are great, so it is only a matter of respect and responsability from the winemakers in order not to blow it.
Enjoy Altamira, go and visit it, it´ll fullfill all your senses.
Cheers.
