This year's Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Trophy for Argentinian Single-Varietal Red under £15 went to Zuccardi, Serie A Bonarda, Santa Rosa, Mendoza 2013 (13.5%)
Tasted against:
- Don Cristóbal, 1492 Shiraz, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza 2011
Profile:
The second of two Regional Trophies for Zuccardi’s Serie A portfolio, this is a fabulous expression of what is proving to be Argentina’s second signature red grape.
Sebastian Zuccardi is the third generation winemaker of Zuccardi who also heads up the research and development team. One of his projects is trying to understand the personality of each of Zuccardi’s vineyards, maximising the soil’s capability even by creating bespoke compost. Another is producing wine in the new Altamira winery. This facility (made of soil and rock to evoke the Andes) houses vats of different shapes and sizes, designed to hold exactly the right volume of fruit harvested from the Zuccardi vineyards.
One of these vineyards is Finca Santa Rosa, which produced the fruit for this Trophy-winning Bonarda. The vines are planted about 700m above sea level in eastern Mendoza where the soil is deep and sandy, and where the grapes produce wines that are intense, concentrated and spicy. It is an embodiment of what Zuccardi wants to achieve with all of its wines: ‘We represent the search for balance and the original expression of the places the grapes come from, looking for the perfect combination between weather, soils, altitude and man’s work.’
Written by Decanter
