Familia Zuccardi wines are absolutely stunning!
Adventures Of A Black Belt Sommelier
Fabulous wines from a winery you may not have heard of
I don't usually go to these events. I referred to them as cattle called wine tasting because, at this point in my career, I'm way too much of a prima donna to stand in line with the glass to taste just half ounce of wine that somebody's got for me and also I often get irritated listening to what other people around me are saying about the wines, but that's, again, just because I'm a prima donna. At least I fully admit to being a prima donna, but one of the tables had, well, it was a great tasting. I'm really glad I went because there was an opportunity to taste quite a few really extraordinary wines, but one of the tables they report, this gentleman was pouring wines from an Argentine winery called Familio Zucardi and it spells VUC, the C-A-R-D-I. This is probably a winery that you've never heard of, but this is a wine you should have heard of. I'm not going to really get into the great detail describing the wines because they're all somewhat similar and it would kind of be redundant and very similar descriptions of the various wines, but I mean it's going to tell you which wines I tasted because I think you should be looking for them because they're extraordinary and they're not terribly expensive. I'm going to quote, in some cases I'm going to quote ratings from sources that whose opinion I respect, and there's ratings for all of them, but a couple of people that the ratings are by or people that I don't really think they know what they're talking about, but anyway, all the wines are absolutely, they're just, they're stunning wines. First we tasted the semion, 2020 wine semion, Pellegonos de Valle de Unco. This wine was 100% semion, kind of like a soterine if it were dry instead of sweet. It should retail for about $30, we've got 93 points from Tim Matkin, who's a master of wine who specializes in wines of the Southern Hemisphere. I'd say that's a pretty on-point rating for this wine and I don't know that there's a lot of 100% semion or variety, semion, anywhere that just is good or better than this wine, so it's the 2021 semion, Pellegonos from the, from Unco Valle, to Congado anyway, it's, it's, it's, you know, semion is very full, generally very full body, kind of waxy and lanolin rich and round and full, and I think of it as, it's a great wine with the roast chicken or the strong cheese, especially strong cheese, I think it's a great wine. Then we tasted the 2016 maul bag, Valle de Unco, just their Unco Valle and maul bag. They got 95 points from Decanner magazine, Decanner's a British publication, they're pretty conservative because they're British, 95 points is a lot of points from Decanner, it was in the top 100 from wine of spirits, our wine points spectator, and it should retail under $50. I think it's, I think it's, well, it's at eight years old, I think it's just about ready to be starting to be at its, at its prime or drinking window, I'd say the, not sure it's exactly a 95 point wine, but it's a really, really good wine. And without spending $300 for one of the single vineyard, the tenas of Pata maul bags, it's about as good as Argentine maul bag guts. Then we tasted the 2018 maul bag, a Louvio now from, it's from the Chicaias part of Valle de Unco. It's more expensive. It's about $100, it's, it's not as good as the previous wine and it's twice as expensive, but it's really, really good, I mean, it's really, really actual wine. And I would give it 94, probably 94 points, then we went to the heavy hitters. There's the, the next was the 2013 Inca piedra infinita or farm of the infinite stone 2013. It got 97 points from both the wine, havoc and, and back in the after wine, they specialize in wine through the southern hemisphere, it's, it's about $160 bottle of wine. Again, without spending $300 for one single vineyard container, the Pata red wine, it's about as good as, as Argentine wine gets, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's fabulous, fabulous wine, it's fabulous, and then the 2016 of the same vintage. It's about $250. It's better because it's more mature. It's not better because it's better wine. It's better because it's more mature. Stunning, memorable, wonderful, 95, 96 point wine. Again, just as good as possible for these Argentine red wines to be. It's not these two, these three wines aren't 100% more like their blends. And that's, they're more like, you know, kind of bored of lads. And they're, you know, extraordinary. And then the last, lastly was the 2018 pinka, if you need to grab a skull. It's also about a 250, 260 dollar bottle of wine. And it got 99 points of wine after getting 98 points from Tim Atkins. I think it is about as good as possible for Argentine red wine to be. Again, without spending $300 on a container, it's about a tiny, tiny production. It's about $300, you know, all by for blend. It's, it's good as Argentine wine to get some. I would say those 98, 99 point ratings are. Pretty accurate, although I don't know what really was there between 98 point rating and 100 point rating. So anyway, this, these are. I would encourage you to seek these ones out there. Off the charts, mind-boggling, extraordinary, memorable, profound. Wines that are worth a place that Andy wants. We're no matter how amazing, no matter how many first growth for those. How many, how many break. Grand Prix, Burgundy, it's no matter how many. Colton Valley Carrenays you have. These wines. The deserving place in your wine. So I'd be looking for them there. They are. Mind-boggling, honestly, my point, especially those last three. Thank you for tuning in for adventures of the White Belt Summit. We appreciate it. And we do not take it forever. [BLANK_AUDIO]