About two years ago, the following 91 point review for 2008 Ricominciare Altisimo Malbec was posted in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate:
“Sandalwood, exotic spices, cherry cola, incense, and assorted black fruits titillate the nose while pointing to an incipiently complex, ripe, plush Malbec with good balance and length. Give it 2-3 years to fully blossom and drink it from 2013 to 2023.” Release Price: $36
Now that’s a lovely review, and I would have been happy to try a sample…except that we were just offered the sample last week. To be clear, this is the current offering from Ricominciare, not like the bounty of 2010s – 2012s on most shelves. I mean there are some 2008 Argentine Malbecs out there like Catena Zapata’s luxury cuvee Argentino or their historic single vineyard Nicassia which run around $100 a pop. But most of the moderately priced 2008s are leftover inventory taking up space, so I was very intrigued when we received this.
Funnily enough, a little research revealed that Ricominciare is a family winery founded by a grandson of none other than Nicolas Catena. The family only uses estate grapes from a vineyard they’ve owned more than 50 years in the Uco Valley section of Mendoza. The high altitude of the vineyard, deep sandy soils, irrigated Andes Mountain water, and long growing season with a great diurnal temperature range all combine to create grapes with complexity. By hand harvesting, using only native yeasts, and bottling with no fining and only a very light filtration, they aim for elegance to which I can attest they’ve succeeded.
In fact, the review above mentions the wine’s ‘good balance’ but I’d have to say it’s beyond ‘good’ and is one of the qualities that blew me away. It’s not every day that we taste wines that seem so ‘together’ and deliver such overall pleasure at such a reasonable price-point. To that degree I think it ‘drinks’ better than 91 points. It’s also rare that I immediately buy stock of a sample for myself immediately upon tasting a sample, which I did with the ’08 Altisimo. This wine begged for a juicy charred rib-eye which I paired up a bottle the night our allocation arrived. I strongly suggest you grab a case or two for some wonderful meals for this year and a number to come, as makes this offering that more compelling.