ALTOS LAS HORMIGAS - Malbec Classico 2019
Altos Las Hormigas is located in Mendoza, in Argentina. In 1995, Alberto Antonini, a well-known Tuscan winemaker, and Antonio Morescalchi, a young entrepreneur, took a trip to visit the burgeoning wine areas of South America. They returned to Tuscany powerfully 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 viticultural values and unblemished land could be reinvigorated with a modern winemaking approach and international experience. They purchased 206 hectares in the rural township of Lujan de Cuyo for the future estate of Altos Las Hormigas. When the vineyards were planted in 1996, workers faced a stiff altercation with the local ant colonies. The ants loved to feed on the tender sprouts of the newly-planted young vines, often reducing months of man labor to nothing, all in a single night. The workers refused to poison the ants and started looking for natural ways to deflect their attention. Minimal intervention, indigenous yeasts, minimal extraction, neutral oak ageing, minimal SO2 and so forth, all these guidelines at Altos Las Hormigas.
The Malbec 2019 is made from 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 softly pressed and fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts. The wine is aged for minimum 9 months in concrete vats. The weather during the season in 2019 registered the highest maximum temperatures as well as the lowest minimum, compared to former seasons. This wide range of temperatures translated into very fruity flavours in the wines.
Grape variety: 100% Malbec