Description
Despite the impressive age of their wealth of vines, the Achaval Ferrer project is really quite recent. It started as a group of four friends; two of them, Santiago Achaval and Manuel Ferrer, are the source of the name, their third another Argentine like them, and for their fourth consultant winemaker Roberto Cipresso. Originally they had intended to find land, bring Roberto over, and plant it. Plans changed however when they found a small old vineyard called “Altamira”, which has since borne the fruit for their most acclaimed wine. From there onward, they focused on acquiring other old vineyards and nursing them back to health.
The company was purchased in 2013, and the holdings have been expanded, but there was some overlap between the old winemaker and the new: Gustavo Rearte. Little has changed in the style of wine that the project pursues, to the rejoice of collectors everywhere.
The vineyards that contribute to this wine are in Lujan de Cuyo at almost 1000 metres above sea level with a wealth of very old vines, and from Medrano at about 900 metres in altitude. In Lujan de Cuyo, the soils are thin, super well draining gravelly loams over volcanic rock that lend the prettier aromatics to the wine, whereas in Medrano the soils are of a heavier clay that makes a likewise more muscular wine. The vines are planted at relatively low densities to avoid water stress, though interestingly, they’re all on european rootstock. The ungrafted vines are a little lower yeilding, and make wines of a little deeper pigmentation and pronounced intensity.
The wines are all fermented in concrete tanks at slightly higher temperatures (between 29 and 32 degrees), with extensive pumpover for greater extraction. If you have more deeply pigmented fruit you might as well play to your strengths. They add no enzymes or other additives, and do no acid correction. It is matured for 12 months in second and third use French oak barrels.
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