Tannat “Finca Colomé” Salta 2020 – Bodega Colomé “Lote Especial”

The grapes to produce the Tannat “Finca Colomé” Bodega Colomé “Lote Especial” were hand harvested and carefully sorted in the vineyard and then again at the winery on the optical sorting table. The grapes were cold macerated for four days and then fermented with indigenous yeasts, with twice daily pump overs. The wine was matured for 12 months in 225 litre French oak barriques, 25% of which were new. 

The fruit comes from a single plot in the Colomé vineyard that surrounds the winery, located at 2,300 metres above sea level in the Calchaquí Valley. The high altitude and large diurnal range (up to 25°C difference) ensure the grapes ripen steadily over a long growing season and retain good levels of natural acidity. The vines are planted on complex soils of sand, clay and granite. The area has very low rainfall and the vineyards have drip irrigation systems installed.

Bodega Colomé was established in 1831 and is the oldest working winery in Argentina with one of the world’s highest vineyards. The winery is located in the far north of Argentina in the Upper Calchaquí Valley and is thought to have been founded by the Spanish Governor of Salta, Nicolás Severo de Isasmendi y Echalar. In 1854 his daughter, Ascensión, brought the first pre-phylloxera Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon vines to Bodega Colomé. Although these early efforts were pioneering at the time, it was when Swiss entrepreneur Donald Hess (of Hess Collection, Napa Valley fame) bought Bodega Colomé in 2001 that it underwent the greatest transformation. Today, the winery has 140 hectares of biodynamically-run vineyards planted at altitudes of between 1,750 and 3,111 metres above sea level. French winemaker Thibaut Delmotte has been at the helm since 2005, his winemaking philosophy includes minimal intervention, the use of indigenous yeasts in fermentations and restrained use of oak, so that it never overwhelms the characteristic freshness and the purity of fruit of all of the Bodega Colomé wines.