Weekly Tasting Report (March 15-21, 2021): Icons of Argentina and Chile step up
James tastes several top wines from Viña Cobos and Catena Zapata, in a week that featured several Argentine icons. The labels on the bottles on the left are sample labels, as they were shipped from Argentina to Hong Kong for review.
This report of last week’s tastings should probably be named “the icon wines of South America.” Nineteen wines were either 99 or 98 points from Argentina and Chile, and they include some of the greats including:
- Catena Zapata Chardonnay Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard White Bones 2019
- Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard Fortuna Terrae 2019
- Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard River Stones 2019
- Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza Argentino 2019
- Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Cincuenta y Cinco 2020
- Seña Valle de Aconcagua 2019, Vik Valle de Cachapoal VIK 2018
- Viña Cobos Malbec Los Arboles Valle de Uco Chañares Estate 2018
- Viña Cobos Malbec Mendoza Cobos 2018 Viña Cobos Perdriel Luján de Cuyo Cobos Volturno 2018
- Viña Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto 2019
- Viñedo Chadwick Cabernet Sauvignon Valle de Maipo 2019.
The splendid quality of the above wines, both red and white, highlights the excellence of the vintages of 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017 for Chile and Argentina. Not only were the years great for grape growing, winemakers on both side of the Andes are fine-tuning their viticulture and winemaking skills and show greater and greater precision in their pickings by parcel in the vineyards. Their timings for harvests are now calculated like a science. Moreover, they are searching for softer methods of winemaking with less intervention to assure more transparency and finesse in their wines, in both red and white.
“We don’t want to make overpowering wines,” said winemaker Andres Vignoni of Vina Cobos. “We are trying to make leaner wines, not as overpowering but at the same time very focused and working a lot in layers and length of the wine. We want to make them more approachable with a lot of focus in the length and finesse. And [in the end] trying to make more world-class wines.”
He said that they do a lot of work in the vineyards, reducing bunches, leaving canopies on the vines, picking earlier and even harvesting at night for both white and red wines. “We want the ripe berries to arrive perfectly here at the cellar,” he said.
In the winemaking they are doing more whole-cluster fermentations and softer macerations in general to tame some of the tannins and emphasize the fruit. In addition, much less new wood is used in aging and they are using different sizes of oak barrels such as casks and even no wood in some instances.
The themes above were echoed in a Tasting Interview I did with Laura Catena, the dynamic head of the Catena wine family, as well as her winemaker Alejandro Vigil. “You have to study your vineyards for 20 or even 30 years,” said Laura Catena. “It could be 100 years. Most people just don’t do that … we did so much research in the 1990s. Let’s see what this parcel gives and let’s see what that region gives.”
Her winemaker Vigil, who is a soil specialist, added: “For chardonnay we did micro vinifications for 25 years! This gave us the information we needed.”
Laura also added: “I remember when we made the decision to not blend the Bones and Stones. They were so different.” And she said they knew that from years of trial and error.
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- Nine wines from Chacra featured last week, and the ‘Fifty-five’ was one of the best.
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- The 2019 wines from Sena and Vinedo Chadwick produced two of the highest-rated wines of last week’s tastings.
It’s this type of long-term vision and dedication that has produced the greatest wines of both Chile and Argentina and there are so many more to come. We are just now finishing our tastings of more than 1,600 Argentine wines after which we will begin tasting around 1,000 wines from Chile. It’s always exciting tasting and rating the best of South America.
It’s perhaps easier to understand this long trial-and-error philosophy for arriving at the summit in quality when you taste wines like Barolos. They have been doing it for decades. We have dozens of them from some of the top wineries of the Langhe region. For example, a couple of bottles are from the man many consider the maestro of vineyard management, none other than Roberto Voerzio. I have walked his vineyards with him near the village of La Morra in the region of Barolo and he intimately knows every foot of the soil and each vine. The precision in his vineyard care and cultivation is incredible, not to mention the delicacy and attention to the timing and way to harvest. I still marvel how he – and now with his son Davide – cut the tips of their grapes – one by one to reduce their yields to appropriate levels.
In the end, this attention to detail and the work ethic deliver some of the best red grapes in the world and consequently some of the most compelling wines. His Barolo La Serra 2017 shows a freshness and energetic texture despite being made in a relatively dry and hot year. Barolo makers pointed out that some rain in August helped to revive the vines as the nights cooled down. So Barolos in 2017 retain freshness, focus and firmness and Voerzio’s La Serra shows it wonderfully.
A range of Barbaresco and Barolos from Pio Cesare in this report also highlights the excellence of the 2017 vintage and the wines show a holistic integrity and structure reflecting the position of their vineyards in their respective areas as well as the true character of this unique vintage. Pio Boffa, the head of the family-winery, emphasized in a Tasting Interview that the wines show an incredible power and freshness despite the hot and dry growing season. He said that it was nothing like the 2003s, which were slightly jammy and lacked some freshness. Instead the wines are bright and vivid with solid tannins to frame the wines.
The benchmark winemakers for me are those who have a history for making great wines year in, year out. Senior Editor Stuart Pigott managed to taste a range of whites from Kracher, one of the greatness sweet wines in the world. The family has been producing benchmark sweet wines in Austria’s Burgenland for decades and continues to do so.
We also have the 2018 release of Super Tuscan red Ornellaia. And it’s another winner from this balanced and refined vintage and Ornellaia will be a reference point. It’s going to be a favorite for many. In fact, there are lots of wines to favor in this report. Spend some time and check it out.
– James Suckling, editor
The list of wines below are bottles tasted and rated in the previous week by James and other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet in the market, but entering soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.
Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score, and alphabetically by winery name, and can search for specific wines in the search bar.