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SuperUco

Among the most exciting Argentine wines I’ve been tasting in recent years are those made by the four Michelini brothers, especially those bottled under the SuperUco, Michelini Wines and Zorzal labels. The very distinctive—one might say groundbreaking—Michelini style is natural, fresh, savory and low in alcohol. “We are viticulturists, not enologists,” said Matías Michelini. Of course, their ventures are centered around Gualtallary and its stony, higher-altitude, calcaire-rich, well-drained vineyards, an area with a strong tendency toward producing sharply delineated, energetic, mineral-driven and sometimes rather sinewy wines. I visited them—Matías, Gerardo and Gabriel, with only Juan Pablo away on business—at their decidedly low-tech round winery in the middle of their densely planted SuperUco vineyard in Vista Flores, Tunuyán, where they ferment their wines in concrete amphoras, then age them in 500-liter barrels, reserving barriques for their more expensive bottlings.

The brothers do not own a destemmer (“stems make drier, finer wines,” according to Matías), and after crushing the grapes by foot (“the feet of our children,” of whom the four brothers and their two sisters have 22), dump them into the amphoras using buckets. They do not pump over during the fermentation, which occurs with the indigenous yeasts, and they never acidify their wines. The sugar fermentations sometimes finish the following spring, but the wines stand out for their dryness, not to mention their length. The SuperUco wines are never racked until just prior to the bottling, which takes place 14 to 18 months after the harvest. And use of SO2 is minimal: just a bit during the crush and then for the bottling.

My tasting of the wines of the Michelini brothers and several other labels owned by younger winemakers that they advise focused on the 2016 reds, from a wet year that was seriously difficult farther to the north and in lower, flatter vineyards. So I was at least a little surprised when Matías quickly announced that “for us, 2016 was a perfect year.” He told me he loved not having to irrigate the vineyards during this cloudy and often very wet growing season, and he particularly enjoys the fresh herb element shown by so many 2016s. Brother Gerardo called 2016 “the best vintage in the last ten years, followed by 2013 and then by 2018 for its balance of quality and quantity.” I was a bit dubious as I started tasting, but I should not have worried: 2016 is an outstanding vintage for the brothers. Low crop loads were clearly at least partly responsible for the aromatic ripeness and thrust of the wines, as early frost and the dry Zonda wind hurtling down the eastern slopes of the Andes limited production (Malbec is particularly sensitive to wind during flowering).

The SuperUco vines around the winery in Vista Flores are planted meter-by-meter, with yields typically around five tons per hectare. Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon yields can be as low as a pound per vine, with Merlot somewhat higher. The SuperUco wines are made in very limited quantities (just 12,000 bottles in 2017, which was also characterized by a short crop) but they are worth a search of the marketplace.

From Argentina’s Wines Enter the World Stage (Jul 2018) by Stephen Tanzer

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2016 Malbec Calcáreo Granito de Gualta

Release Price: $35

Color: Red

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