“It’s our heritage. I’m very passionate about my country and the potential that we have. It’s not only about Malbec for me—it’s about showing everyone our potential.”
Cody Stephenson (World Portfolio Manager, Skurnik) and Matías Riccitelli (owner/winemaker, Riccitelli) taste a flight of wines from Mendoza to Patagonia and discuss the restoration of Argentina’s wine heritage.
00:00 Introduction to Riccitelli
04:00 Torrontés ‘The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far’
07:01 Chenin Blanc ‘Invader’ Pet Nat
10:37 Regeneration of Patagonia’s wine history
12:06 Pinot Noir ‘Rio Negro’
15:35 Winemaking in Patagonia
16:39 Malbec Viñas Extremas’
23:09 Malbec ‘Viejos Viñedos’
25:01 The Riccitelli way
The wines from this episode
Torrontes ‘The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far’
- 100% Torrontes
- 40-year-old vines located in Tupungato, Uco Valley at 1,000 meters above sea level
- Clay soils and rocky subsoil
- Hand harvested
- Macerated for 48 hours
- Fermented at low temperatures and aged in concrete egg for 6 months
Chenin Blanc ‘Invader’ Pet Nat
- 100% Chenin Blanc, ungrafted old vines
- A single vineyard planted in 1950, planted by Chandon to make sparkling wine
- This vineyard is located in Rio Negro, Isla Grande, Patagonia
- Loamy soils
- Hand harvested
- Direct, gentle pressing
- Fermented with indigenous yeast in concrete eggs
- Fermentation ends in bottle and rests on the lees for 8 months
- The 2024 vintage is the inaugural release
- 100% Pinot Noir
- Sourced from two ungrafted, old-vine vineyards planted in the 1960s
- Hand-harvested
- Fermented with indigenous yeasts in small French oak bats at 24ºC-26ºC for 4 weeks
- Aged for 12 months in used French oak
- 100% Malbec
- Sourced from a vineyard in Los Chacayes, Uco Valley planted at 1,500m ASL on soils featuring a sandy top horizon with a subsoil of calcareous gravel
- Hand harvested in 20kg bins to keep each bunch intact
- Meticulously hand sorted prior to vinification
- Pressed 30% whole cluster and rest destemmed
- Gravity fed to small concrete vats for fermentation with indigenous yeasts at 26° and 28°C
- Gentle punch-downs to achieve a slow extraction
- Aged 16-months in French oak foudres
- 100% Malbec
- Planted in the early 20th century, from Las Compuertas and Vistalba
- Clay loam soils
- Hand harvested and the grapes are transferred to small concrete vessels
- Fermented with indigenous yeasts between 26ºC-28ºC for several weeks
- Aged in used French barrels for 16 months
