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
The vines were planted in 1955. The grapes are 95% Malbec and 5% Merlot. They are irrigated up to four times a year. Green pruning is carried out in mid January during veraison thus leaving only 30 hl/acre. All of our eleven hectares of estate vineyards are cultivated with organic and biodynamic techniques and are certified by Argencer & Demeter. On the farm we produce seven out of eight biodynamic preparations (502,503,504,506,507) with our own raw material, exclusively. We also prepare our own horn manure (500) and biodynamic composts.
The wine
J.Alberto 2010 is a field blend of 95% Malbec and 5% Merlot with:
- 13% Alcohol
- pH 3.50
- 5.44 g/l of Titratable acidity
Only 9,000 bottles and 150 Magnums were produced.
NB. As the wine is a 100% natural and unfiltered; it may present some harmless deposits in the bottle.
The winemaking
The winter 2009 was consistently very cold, dry and long, in other words a “proper” winter.
The spring was warm, with some strong winds; the mild frosts were announced until well into November, which is quite late. The flowering occurred quite late as well, about 10 to 15 days later. After that the winds picked up again well into mid January. Some unusual rain came down in spring which was very welcome!
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 harvesting quite early, on 9th March 2010, although alcohol levels were low (between 12% and 13%). The grapes were simply beautiful and showed very good grained tannins.
The grapes are from our single vineyard planted in 1955 with 95% Malbec pre Phelloxera, pied- Franco vines complemented with 5% Merlot amongst the Malbec vines. We pick both varieties at the same time, this adds to complexity.
The grapes were picked in the morning and brought to the winery in a cool truck in order to preserve their “soul”. We have learnt from the producers in the Rio Negro valley where they grow some of the best pears in the world that the only way to keep them so good is keeping them in cold temperature. All the grapes were destemmed at the winery into small 2,500 litre cement vats. This year we introduced whole -bunch fermentation. The grapes were then cold soaked for 7 days before the indigenous fermentation started; we ferment all our wines on their
own yeasts. The alcoholic fermentation lasted two weeks, using the “pigeage” or “plunging” method to extract color and tannins; this is the gentler extraction method in any form of winemaking.
After the fermentation, the wine was decanted by gravity into 30% second- use French oak barrels , 30% into third-use and the remainder 40% in a cement vat for a period of nine months in total .No more new barriques for J.Alberto!. The short “elevage” (maturing) time is not really ideal for new barrels.
The malolactic fermentation also occurred naturally in the same barrels and vats for about 1, 5 months. No batonnage was carried out.
The wine was racked and blended on 29th December 2010, which was a Root day (by the biodynamic calendar) on a waning moon.
The wine was then bottled unfiltered on 14th January 2011 which was a fruit day in the calendar, a very favourable day.
