Vina Alicia Brote Negro Malbec 2019
2500 bottles made
Wine Advocate: “intense fruit and lots of structure because of the small berries used. It’s ripe, fruit-driven and peachy. It has a note of pit fruit, aromatic plants and spice with a creamy palate, juicy and tender.”
94 points Wine Advocate
“The Malbec 2019 Brote Negro has intense fruit and a lot of structure because of the small berries used. 2019 was a traditional Mendoza vintage of good quality, and these grapes ripened thoroughly to 14.9% alcohol. It fermented after a 48-hour cold soak, and the wine matured in oak barrels for 16 months. It’s ripe, fruit-driven and peachy. They now have a small plot they have propagated from these original plants and are slowly growing here. It has note of pit fruit, aromatic plants and spice with a creamy palate, juicy and tender. 2,500 bottles were filled in October 2020.”
The Arizu family have been grape growers and viticultural pioneers in Argentina for 5 generations. Think of them as the ‘Mondavis of Mendoza.’ They own the oldest producing Malbec vineyard in Mendoza –planted over 150 years ago – the Las Compuertas vineyard. About 18 years ago, random plants in this vineyard underwent a spontaneous transformation and came out of the dormant season as a new species of DNA seen nowhere else on earth. DNA analysis confirmed the uniqueness of the rogue, mutant vines which other than being different, were perfectly healthy. Each year since then, more random vines throughout the vineyard have made the transformation – just less than 1% of the total vineyard has transformed. The remaining 99% of the Las Compuertas vineyard is managed and harvested in 2 main sections. One part for Las Compuertas Malbec and the other for Paso de Piedra Malbec. The rogue vines are kept separate and used to create roughly 150cs of a wine called Brote Negro – The Black Shoots. Matt Kramer (Wine Spectator Magazine) called this “the benchmark for Argentina”. This is a tiny piece of wine history – drinking it is a rare privilege.
