Michelini i Mufatto - A Merced 2021

Druvor

Menica

Vinframställningsprocess

• Druvor odlas i 80-åriga Gobelet-beskurna vingårdar. 
• Vinifierad med fottrampade (pigeage à pied) 100 % hela kluster, fermenterad med inhemsk jäst i leramforor genom mild maceration, varken genom att utföra pressning eller pumpning över tekniker. 
• Fem månaders maceration i kontakt med pressrester och massa.
• Följt av en åtta månaders lagring på använda franska fat, detta är en begränsad upplaga på 3,000 flaskor.

Tasting note

The 2021 A Merced is surprisingly a little higher in alcohol than the 2020 I tasted next to it, despite the much cooler year. It fermented with 50% foot-trodden whole clusters in 1,000-liter oak casks with indigenous yeasts and a long maceration. It matured in used 225-liter French oak barrels for one year. It's a little earthy but also floral and elegant, combining that wild side that seems to be inherent to this place, as I've noticed it in the last few vintages. It's quite expressive and showy, very complete and balanced. 10,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in October 2022.

The Michelini Mufatto family from Mendoza have a plot and wine in Bierzo, Encinado, in the heights of the San Lorenzo Valley, a cooler place located between 720 and 780 meters above sea level, with an area of 0.7 hectares on steep slopes on gray slate floors that delivers a wine with a marked Atlantic profile. They are now producing a total of 43,000 bottles. 

2020 and 2021 were very different vintages there; 2020 was a warm and dry year of healthy grapes, a quick and early harvest and wines with texture and upfront fruit. 2021 was really a cold year, the coldest since they have worked in El Bierzo, with a notable snow storm (Filomena), some mildew at the end of the season and wines with very good balance between their acidity and complexity. 2022 was, again, very dry and warm, and in that year, they are separating some of the components even further, mostly for A Merced.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate