Tapiz Alta Chardonnay 2019
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Robert
Parker
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Hand-picked from their "Alta" San Pablo vineyards located at 1,400 meters above sea level in Mendoza's Uco Valley. This Chardonnay is a golden yellow wine. The aromas and flavors of fresh fruit such as apple and pear, and also crystalline peach combine mineral touches and orange peel. French oak provides notes of caramel and honey. It is a long and very tasty wine on the palate.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The varietal and medicinal 2019 Alta Collection Chardonnay comes from San Pablo and has the freshness of the high altitude and cool zone. It was produced in a traditional (oxidative) way, but they have reduced the percentage of new oak and moved to 500-liter barrels, so the oak is subtler. The wine has balsamic flavors with a touch of herbs and dry flowers and the subdued minerality from the soils. It's fresh even after 100% malolactic.
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The Tapiz Winery, located in the San Pablo I.G. in Mendoza’s Uco Valley, has one of the highest vineyards in Mendoza at 4,600 feet above sea level. Under the ownership and vision of Patricia Ortiz, Tapiz is a pioneer in the region and helped develop San Pablo into one of Argentina’s most renowned IGs. The state-of-the art winery is located in the heart of the estate vineyards, at the foothills of the Andes Mountains.
The highly rated wines of Tapiz are made by the celebrated winemaking team of Fabian Valenzuela and famed Bordeaux winemaker Jean Claude Berrouet (winemaker of Petrus for 44 vintages). Their wines are a beautiful tapiz (tapestry) of terroir and innovation. Benefiting from the extremes of altitude, temperature, and soil heterogeneity, Fabian and Jean Claude are able to create wines that are full-bodied and concentrated, yet elegant and balanced.
Patricia Ortiz, an avid art collector and former nephrologist, has imparted the need to strive for both artistic and scientific excellence in winemaking. To that end her Zolo winery (Agrelo, Mendoza) and Tapiz winery (San Pablo, Uco Valley) are staffed with some of Argentina’s most passionate and successful wine professionals and the most state-of-the-art technology. Patricia has focused her efforts on creating sustainable winemaking. In addition to hiring one of Argentina's top winemakers (Fabian Valenzuela) and vineyard managers (Carlos Correas), Patricia also brought on Jean Claude Berrouet as consulting winemaker.
Her Zolo and Tapiz wines are two of the top selling and critically-acclaimed Argentine brands in the U.S. and each include Top 100 Wines of the Year. In 2022, Patricia won the La Nación's Women to the World prize. La Nación, Argentina's most important newspaper, chose Patricia for her groundbreaking work as a successful woman leader of the wine industry. Patricia is the owner and President of three wineries (Tapiz, Zolo, and Wapisa) and nine sustainably-farmed vineyards in different parts of Argentina and is the first female president of Bodegas de Argentina, the industry trade group. Patricia, who lived many years in the U.S. and speaks fluent English, is one of Mendoza’s top ambassadors to the world. In 2019 she became the first female President of Bodegas de Argentina and in 2023 she was nominated by Wine Enthusiast as Executive of the Year.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
By far the largest and best-known winemaking province in Argentina, Mendoza is responsible for over 70% of the country’s enological output. Set in the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains, the climate is dry and continental, presenting relatively few challenges for viticulturists during the growing season. Mendoza, divided into several distinctive sub-regions, including Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley, is the source of some of the country’s finest wines.
For many wine lovers, Mendoza is practically synonymous with Malbec. Originally a Bordelaise variety brought to Argentina by the French in the mid-1800s, here it found success and renown that it never knew in its homeland where a finicky climate gives mixed results. Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Pinot Noir are all widely planted here as well (and sometimes even blended with each other or Malbec). Mendoza's main white varieties include Chardonnay, Torrontés, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.