This wine smells of black cherry, mulberry and dark soil. The palate is round on its entry and then shows some fine and polished tannins. The palate has flavors of ripe black cherry, coffee, and bark. It is medium to plus in body with fine tannins.

WINE INFORMATION

Matias was born in a small village in Salta in northern Argentina and moved to Mendoza with his family when he was young, ultimately studying winemaking there. He also learned from his father and mentor Jorge, well-known winemaker at Bodegas Norton (where he also worked). Matias traveled the winemaking world, working harvests and cellars. He returned home, and in 2009 founded Riccitelli Wines. His winery is located in the highest area of Lujan de Cuyo at 1100 meters above sea level (masl). He owns 20 hectares of ungrafted old vineyards and also sources fruit from small family growers with plots located between 1100 and 1700 masl. He extended his reach into Patagonia in 2015, where he obtained high-altitude vineyards planted in the 1960s to Semillon, Merlot, and Malbec.

All of Matias’ fruit comes from practicing organic vineyards and is harvested manually. All wines ferment with indigenous yeasts and are made with no additives except a tiny amount of sulfur at bottling in some cases. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” is his homage to his father. All the fruit comes from estate vineyards in Pedriel on rocky clay soils; the rest come  from plots at 1400 masl on sand and limestone soils in Gualtallary. Hand-harvested and destemmed grapes go into small concrete vats for fermentation at 26°-28°C for some weeks. The wine is transferred to used French oak barrels to age until the following vintage. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered with no to low sulfur.

Grilled preparations, Ham, Pizza, Pork, Red Meat, Roasted Root Vegetables, Tomato Sauce