Altar Uco - Edad Media 2019

Altar Uco is the latest endeavor from beloved Tupungato-based winemaker Juan Pablo Michelini. Affectionately known as Juampi to those who’ve had the pleasure of spending any time with him, he also serves as the head winemaker at his family’s winery, Zorzal. However, this project offers a fresh perspective on what the Uco Valley and more specifically Gualtallary means in the greater conversation on South American wine. Juampi explained to us that he aims to produce “quiet wines” which require as little human intervention as possible – they are made in one or two months before spending years at rest.

In his own words, “Altar Uco is a continuous and eternal project. A constant search to achieve even more pure and delicate expressions of the terroir, which includes not only the place where the grapes are grown, but also, and perhaps the most significant for us, man’s interpretation of that place.” These wines are more than the sum of their parts – more than just the product of high elevation and limestone soil.

The ‘Edad Moderna’ (Modern Age) series are wines defined by their shorter time in the winery, aged briefly in cement pools and then bottled. Here, he’s striving for lively, textured wines meant for enjoyment in their youth. The ‘Edad Media’ (Middle Age) series are wines matured in a mixture of French oak barrels (some new and some second-use) in addition to amphora – suited to age and evolve for years to come. Maia Echegoyen serves as the viticulturalist behind the project.

A blend of 40% Malbec, 30% Cabernet Franc and 30% Merlot. The wine is aged in equal parts in 500-liter barrels of first, second and third use for one year before aging another full year in amphora.

"The 2019 Edad Media Tinto will be released in one more year, perhaps in early 2024, but it was bottled around May 2023 and was already available for tasting. In 2019, a cooler year, it was produced with 80% Malbec and the rest Cabernet Franc and Merlot, so it has a lot more Malbec as they are going for a clear majority of the flagship grape. The wine is more aromatic, with notes of violets that are nicely spiced up by the other grapes. I tasted this next to the 2018 and also a 2017, and there is more finesse each year, with more elegant tannins and a subtler mouthfeel. They always produce between 5,000 and 6,000 bottles of this wine." - 94 Points, Wine Advocate

Producer: Altar Uco

Country: Argentina

Region: Mendoza

Varietal: Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot

Appellation: Gualtallary

Vintage: 2019

Size: 750ml