Altos Las Hormigas - Malbec Clasico 2020
Altos Las Hormigas is located in Mendoza , Argentina . In 1995, Alberto Antonini , a well-known Tuscan winemaker, and Antonio Morescalchi , a young entrepreneur, travel to visit the booming wine regions of South America. They return to Tuscany impressed not only by the region, but also by the unexplored potential of Malbec , a grape that had a strong local tradition but was largely ignored and misunderstood. While the rest of the wine world saw Mendoza struggling to shed its bulk wine image, the two young Italians saw Mendoza as a place where traditional wine values and land could be invigorated with a modern wine approach and international experience. . They then bought 206 hectares in the rural town of Luján de Cuyo for the future Altos Las Hormigas estate. When the vines were planted in 1996, workers faced a heated argument with local ant colonies. Ants loved to feed on the tender shoots of newly planted young vines, often wiping out months of human labor, all in a single night. The workers of course refused to poison the ants and began looking for natural ways to distract them. Minimal intervention , indigenous yeasts, minimal extraction, aging in neutral oak barrels, minimal SO2 etc, all these guidelines are essential at Altos Las Hormigas.
Malbec Clasico is made with grapes from vineyards in Luján de Cuyo (70%) and the Uco Valley (30%). The grapes are harvested by hand and sorted twice. They are then gently pressed and fermented in stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts. The wine is aged for a minimum of 9 months in concrete vats .
Grape variety: 100% Malbec