The area
The estate is situated in Rio Negro Valley, which is 620 miles South of Buenos Aires, 280 miles east of the Andes, 310 miles west of the Atlantic and a further 1240 miles from Tierra del Fuego. In other words, it is located in the middle of the desert. The valley’s microclimate is under the influence of two rivers deriving from the Andes, the Neuquen and the Limay which form into the Rio Negro, which throws itself into the Atlantic. The Rio Negro valley is an ex glacier which is 310 miles long and 15,5 miles large at 250 yards above sea level. In 1828, the British colonies, having observed the large amounts of water flowing down the river, decided to create channels which would irrigate the valley thus forming a type of oasis in the middle of the desert.
The climate
The climate is dry. Maximum 30% humidity and 7 inches of rain/year make the area free of diseases. There is no pollution, meaning that there is a high purity of sunlight (great photosynthesis). There is vast thermal amplitude: in maturation season the temperatures are on average 28 grades centigrade at day and 9 grades centigrade at night. The four seasons are very precise; mild spring, hot summer, mild autumn and a clod winter.
The vineyard
One third of the grapes are estate grown from our own vineyard planted in 2004 in Valle Azul in the desert, which is drip irrigated and cultivated using organic and bio-dynamic techniques (both certified by Argencer & Demeter respectfully) . The other two thirds are grapes sourced from the INTA (Agricultural Research Centre) and a contracted producer. The grapes are 90%, 9% Merlot and a 1% Petit –Verdot. Harvesting starts in early February and lasts until end of March.
The wine
A Lisa is a blend of 90% Malbec, 9% Merlot and 1% Petit-Verdot with:
- 13.5% Alcohol
- pH 3.50
- 5.36 g/l of Titratable acidity
57,300 bottles and 10 Magnums were produced.
NB. As the wine is a 100% natural and unfiltered; it may present some harmless deposits in the bottle.
The winemaking
In 2009, winter was consistently very cold, dry and long, in other words a “proper” winter.
Spring was warm, with some strong winds; the mild frosts were announced until well into November, which is quite late. Flowering occurred quite late as well, about 10 to 15 days later. After that it was windy again until mid January. Some rain came down in spring which was unusual but very welcome!
The summer started quite late, cool and moderate weather was on the menu until February when a heat spike came along for 20 days, providing very hot days and warm nights, which are unusual in the area.
At the end of summer, autumn started with a cool February, with warm to hot days with very cold nights until well into April.
As a conclusion we can say that the year was cool, relative to normal years and blessed with a beautiful autumn. Great conditions.
We began to harvest Merlot grapes in our Valle Azul five-hectare vineyard on February 22nd , 2010 ; two days later we started harvesting Malbec and on 27th February we finished with Petit Verdot .The grapes are from our single vineyard in the desert.
Malbec and Merlot sourced from our producers in the Valley were picked from 25th March until the 5th April 2010, which is late for our standards.
The grapes were all hand -picked into 10 kgs crates.
All the grapes were destemmed by machine at the winery into small 2,500 litres cement vats and 10,000 litres stainless steel tanks. The grapes were then cold soaked for four days before the indigenous and non indigenous yeast fermentation started. The alcoholic fermentation lasted two weeks, using the “pigeage” or “plunging” and “pumping over” methods to extract the color and tannins.
After the fermentation, 30% of the wine was transfered into third and fourth use French oak barrels, of the finest quality, 30% into cement tank and 40% into stainless steel tanks for a period of 10 months.
The malolactic fermentation also occurred naturally in the same barrels and vats for about two months. No batonnage was carried out.
The wine was racked and blended on 10th, 11th, and 12th January 2011.
The wine was then bottled unfiltered on 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th January 2011.
