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"Best New Discovery Wine of the Year!" - HONORABLE MENTION
“Uco” was an Indian chief from the Huarpes Millcayak tribe, the earliest inhabitants of this valley and for many centuries, the only ones until the Incas arrived from Peru during the early 1490s.
The Jesuits settled in Mendoza in 1608, and in 1658 founded the Estancia San José, a farming enterprise in the Uco Valley, which subsequently grew into a village and was also the site of the later-built Estancia Atamisque.
The property originally covered 19,000 hectares and was only divided up towards the end of the 19th century.
The estancia changed hands many times until it was purchased by a Frenchman, John Du Monceau, who fell in love with the place and decided to settle there. As his wife Chantal’s grandfather had been a winemaker in Burgundy, France, she was keen to build a winery on the land, and so Bodega Atasmique was born, christened in honor of the original name of the area. The Capalta is produced from their first harvest in March 2007.
Atamisque is the common name of a woody bush that grows in the zone. The scientific name is capparis atamisquea, and belongs to the Capparaceae family. It grows spontaneous in almost every province of Argentina. The Catalpa tree from the Capparaceae family is the emblematic specie of Valle de Uco.
The wine maker is Philippe Caraguel a French-Argentine young guy (40) who studied in Argentina and in Montpellier (France). Caraguel benefits from the expertise of consultant Roberto De la Mota, who is the former wine maker of Cheval des Andes, the Cheval Blanc - Terrazas de los Andes collaboration, and arguably the best Argentine red wine (2005 currently in stock)
This incredible Malbec value is produced from a low yielding, 70 year old vineyard planted at an elevation of 4,300 feet in the foothills of Tupungato in the Valle de Uco in the southern reaches of the Mendoza region. The wine is aged for 12 months in new French oak barrique.
Catalpa is a "Best New Discovery Wine of the Year!" It is simply an amazing value from a winery to watch!
Deep red color with a purple morning glory tinge. Intense blackberry and cassis aromas with floral and mineral undertones. This is an intense, well structure, and full-bodied wine that will astonish you for the price. The firm but rounded tannins, and a surprisingly lengthy finish promise to reward with extended aging.
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