El Montañista Corte de Blancas Valle de Calingasta 2024

Style: Crisp

Country: Argentina

Region: San Juan
Appellation/Sub-Region: Valle de Calingasta

Grapes: Torrontés Sanjuanino, Torrontés Mendocino, Malvasia, Maticha

Vineyard/Cellar Practices: Organically Grown, Low-Intervention/Natural Wine

SO2: N/A

Where Food Meets Its Match: Drink with high acid dishes to enhance the wine's fruit and liveliness; fatty and oily dishes will help temper the wine’s acidity. 

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MORE ON THIS WINE 

Pancho Bugallo and Nuria Añó Gargiulio were fresh out of university when they began farming vines and making wines in Calingasta Valley in 2011, starting their first project Cara Sur. Fast forward 10 years, and the opportunity to farm and make wines from a very special vineyard prompted them to start El Montañista. Picture this: In the foothills of the Andes mountains, resting at 1500m above sea level lies the 80-year-old Paraje Hilario vineyard on quartz-rich colluvial rocks from which the organically grown torrontés sanjuanino and torrontes mendocino grapes (lest we forget, there is a little bit of malvasia and maticha too) are hand harvested. After destemming, they macerate on their skins for the duration of spontaneous fermentation in concrete. Never pressed, the free run juice rests in concrete for 7 months before bottling, where it developed a veil of flor. It’s giving freshly zested lemon, alpine herbs, and a whiff of a freshly baked biscuit. Breakfast mint-lemonade? Perhaps. Also, the minerality on the finish is stunning, give us all of that crunchy texture.