Tasting notes: Amauta ‘Corte IV Innovación’ Cabernet Franc Malbec
Amauta ‘Corte IV Innovacion’ Cabernet Franc Malbec. Deep ruby red colour and a lifted nose of bramble berry and gentle spice. Rich and supple with sweet spice and ripe, juicy berry fruit flavours. The finish is plush, long and moreish. This is an exotic red very much of its place, Cafayate.
Food Match:
Grilled meats, especially lamb and spiced meat dishes.
Region/Producer:
El Porvenir de Cafayate is one of Salta’s premium but very affordable, high altitude wine producers. This small, family-owned winery in Cafayate, specialises in Torrontes, Malbec, Tannat and red blends from 45-50 year old vineyards which are amongst the highest in the world at 1900m asl and surrounded by 20ft, 200+ year old monster cacti. Colour in the reds here is profound due to the exposure to prolonged mountain sunlight, with soft tannins thanks in part to the extreme diurnal temperature differences… some mornings the catcti are thick with frost but within a few hours temperatures soar to the mid/high 20s!
El Porvenir – “the future” has been the name of this estate since it was founded in 1890. The winery and vineyards were restored by the Romero-Marcuzzi family in the 1990s and the main team is made up of company Director, Lucía Romero Marcuzzi, Winemaker Francisco ‘Paco’ Puga, and Agricultural Engineer Daniel Guillén, whose joint goal is to capture the essence of Cafayate’s unique high altitude characters through their remarkable range of wines.
Grapes are grown on the arid site of Finca Rio Seco, 1,700 metres above sea level in Cafayate, Salta. The vines were planted in 2001 and yield only low volumes of around 6 tons/hectare. The Malbec is picked first at the beginning of March with the Cabernet Franc left on vine until the end of March.
All grapes are whole bunch hand picked into 20kg bins, minimising bruising/crushing. Initially, the grapes go through cold pre-fermentative maceration for 4 days at 5 degrees celcius then alcoholic fermentation for 14 days. Post-fermentative maceration last for 15 days and then spontaneous malolactic fermentation takes place. The wine is aged in second use french oak (80%) and american (20%) barrels for 6 – 8 months.
For more information about the producer: https://www.elporvenirwines.com/home
