Altos Las Hormigas - Malbec Clasico 2021
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 shake off its image as a bulk wine, the two young Italians saw Mendoza as a place where traditional wine values and lands could be reinvigorated with a modern viticultural approach and international experience. They then bought 206 hectares in the rural commune 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. The ants loved to feed on the tender shoots of the newly planted young vines, often undoing months of human labor, all in one night. The workers of course refused to poison the ants and started looking for natural ways to distract them. Minimal intervention , indigenous yeasts, minimal extraction, neutral oak barrel aging, minimal SO2 etc. , all these guidelines are essential at Altos Las Hormigas.
Malbec is made from grapes from vineyards in Luján de Cuyo (70%) and the Uco Valley (30%). The grapes are hand-picked and sorted twice. They are then gently pressed and fermented in vats. stainless steel with indigenous yeasts. The wine is aged for a minimum of 9 months in concrete vats . The weather during the 2019 season recorded the highest maximum temperatures as well as the lowest minimum temperatures, compared to previous seasons. This wide temperature range results in very fruity flavors in the wines.
Grape variety: 100% Malbec