Republica del Malbec, Matías Riccitelli 2020
Tim Atkin MW Tim Atkin 93; James Suckling 96
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Why this wine
The Las Compuertas vines behind this wine went into the ground in 1908, and that age shows as depth and fine tannin rather than sheer size. Splitting the ageing between barrels and 1,000-litre foudres keeps the oak in the background where it belongs. It is the bottling that makes Riccitelli's case for old-vine Luján de Cuyo Malbec.
At a glance
- Grape
- Malbec
- Region
- Mendoza, Argentina
- Alcohol
- 14.00%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Barbecue, Cheese
How it tastes
Wild blackberry and dark plum lead, with liquorice and warm spice sitting behind them. Full-bodied and concentrated, yet the acidity is gentle and the tannins are silky and fine-grained, so the weight never turns heavy. Malbec 100%.
The producer
Matías Riccitelli, son of the winemaker Jorge Riccitelli, set up his own Mendoza winery in 2009 after working at leading Argentine estates and picking up vintages around the world; the estate now farms 50 hectares across three selected sites and was named in the Top 100 of the World's Best Vineyard Awards 2025. The fruit here comes from vines planted at Las Compuertas, in Luján de Cuyo, in 1908, deleafed and precisely pruned each January and hand-picked into 20kg trays, with a second hand-sort before vinification. Fermentation followed a five-day cold maceration and ran on indigenous yeasts in 1,000-litre French oak vats at 26-28°C, with a further ten days on skins to draw out colour and fine tannin. Half the 2020 was aged in first-, second- and third-use barrels, half in 1,000-litre French oak foudres, for 18 months.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16-18°C. It suits grilled ribeye, slow-cooked lamb shoulder, chorizo off the barbecue, or a mature hard cheese such as aged Manchego. Drinking well now and worth keeping for another five to eight years; an hour in a decanter opens out the spice. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.