Familia Zuccardi, Finca Las Cerrilladas, 2022
Familia Zuccardi, Finca Las Cerrilladas, 2022
- 75cl
- 14.5%
- Red Still
- Malbec
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Optimal drinking window: 2026 - 2038
Est. delivery in Winter, 2027
Finca La Cerrilladas is one of the single-vineyard wines that has helped put Zuccardi at the very top of Argentine wine. It comes from a high-altitude site in the Uco Valley, where the combination of poor soils, wide diurnal shifts, and old vines gives a Malbec with a very different personality from the plush, generous style that made Argentina famous. This is leaner, more mineral, more serious.
The 2022 vintage was excellent across the Uco Valley, producing wines with good natural acidity and fine-grained structure.
What the critics say:
"Three different soil types from this 4,462-foot site go into the 2022 Malbec Finca Las Cerrilladas, which is red-fruited, herbal, rocky, and ferrous in nature, with expansive tannins on the lengthy palate. The native herbal vegetation comes into play, adding complex contrast to the power and freshness. Just fantastic, it will age easily another 15-18 years."
"The confluence of this parcel's austere nature and the burly profile endowed by the vintage makes the 2022 Finca Las Cerrilladas one of the more wound-up and overtly structural wines in the Finca range. A deep well of inky black fruits, tar, incense and mineral aromas is lifted by the region's resinous and botanical signature, followed by an intensely muscular, deeply concentrated mouthfeel that is among the fullest-bodied wines in the Zuccardi portfolio. The finish continues this sheer power with a raw, brawny conclusion dominated by chewy tannins, yet despite this structure, the wine's overall energy skews toward the buoyancy and lift that track through the top-of-the-range bottlings from Zuccardi. More than any other wine in the Finca portfolio, it will demand patience, but I do not doubt that it will reward it."
La Cerrilladas sits in the Paraje Altamira sub-zone of the Uco Valley at elevations approaching 1,100 metres, where alluvial soils over calcium carbonate-rich limestone (calcáreo) force vines to work hard and deliver correspondingly concentrated, structured fruit. The altitude brings cool nights that preserve natural acidity and slow ripening considerably, giving the Malbec a tightness and mineral edge you simply don't find lower down. Intense Andean sunshine by day and cold air descending from the mountains at night creates the kind of thermal swing — often more than 20°C — that defines the Uco Valley's capacity for age-worthy wines. The stony, free-draining soils add that iron and graphite character that sets Altamira wines apart from other parts of Mendoza.
The Uco Valley sits to the south and west of Mendoza city, rising into the Andes foothills and covering several distinct sub-zones including Altamira, Gualtallary, and Los Chacayes. It functions under Argentina's Indicación Geográfica system, which is less prescriptive than European appellations — there are no mandated grape varieties or yield restrictions — so quality here is entirely producer-led. What the Uco Valley does have in abundance is altitude, limestone soils, and a climate that makes the rest of Mendoza look warm and easy by comparison. It is the engine room of Argentina's new wave of fine wine, and it is producing some of South America's most compelling bottles.
The 2022 growing season in Mendoza delivered exactly what the region's winemakers pray for: a long, steady ripening period without the dramatic weather swings that can make or break a vintage. After a relatively cool summer, harvest stretched well into April for many producers, giving grapes the luxury of time to develop flavour whilst retaining the natural acidity that keeps Mendoza's reds from becoming jammy fruit bombs. We find this patience shows in the wines themselves, which carry more tension and less obvious power than some of the region's blockbuster years.
What emerged from the cellars feels like Mendoza at its most refined rather than its most muscular. The Malbecs show deep colour and concentrated dark fruit, but there's a freshness running through them that makes them approachable young whilst promising excellent ageing potential. Cabernet Sauvignon particularly shines, with structured tannins that feel polished rather than austere, and the high-altitude Chardonnays display crystalline precision. Most 2022s are drinking beautifully now and should develop gracefully until 2035, though the best Malbecs will reward patience well beyond that.
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