The Finca Canal Uco cuvée is 100% Malbec and is named after the channel that irrigates the vineyard. One of the first decisions that Sebastian Zuccardi took when he started in 2007 was to remove ‘Malbec’ from the label of his premium wines made from the emblematic variety. ‘I was not popular with the commercial team, as Argentine Malbec was such a strong brand essentially. But for me, these wines are about place; Malbec is a wonderful variety as it gives a transparent expression of place and it is a great vehicle for demonstrating the site and its soils. It was a huge leap of faith but it has paid off.’

The first vintage of Finca Canal Uco was 2012 and was made in what Sebastian called a ‘traditional’ style, as he explains: ‘We were making wines as they were made in Mendoza at the time, with the emphasis on concentration and power. Moreover, oak was an essential part of the style and for this maiden vintage we used 100% new 225-litre French barriques.’ The 2012 was indeed a rich, concentrated and intense wine with the oak well integrated but certainly still evident 13 years later.

The rapid stylistic revolution was sparked with the 2013, which saw considerable changes – only 25% new oak used and in the form of larger, 500-litre barrels. The change in the wine was clear, with a greater sense of brightness, vibrancy and precision. The wine wasn’t made in 2014 due to poor vintage conditions but there were further changes for 2015, with no new oak used and only 40% aged in old large-format oak, with the balance aged in concrete. For this vintage, 30% stems were included for the first time, predominantly to add extra structure to the wine. In 2017, the decision was made to vinify and age everything in concrete going forward, a decision that was made for all the premium red wines that Zuccardi makes in Uco.

The decision to move to concrete was taken alongside those that were made in building their Uco winery in San Carlos, which officially opened in 2016. The winery was built with concrete made from stones, water and sand excavated from the property. Inside the winery, the vats and vessels are exclusively concrete, also made from the same materials. ‘Concrete gives no taste or flavour to the wine,’ says Sebastian, ‘it helps give the transparency of place we are looking for, it allows less micro-oxygenation than oak. Malbec doesn’t have naturally high levels of tannin, so we want to keep what we have, such as the bite and texture, rather than round it out with more oxygen.’ Using concrete may sound like a modern technique but Sebastian points out that it’s been used in the region before: ‘It’s part of the history of Mendoza; it was all concrete 100 years ago. Then foudres arrived and it wasn’t until 1987 that the first small French barriques were imported. So, in a way, this is “back to the future” in terms of Mendoza and Malbec.’

Other significant changes were taken with regards to vinification, such as maceration times. From up to 50 days with the 2012, to just 12-15 days from the 2015 vintage onwards, Sebastian says of the changes: ‘I feel very fortunate that we are a family company, as it enabled us to make huge changes in a short space of time and to be more dynamic than many other companies can. However, we did many trials over the years with regards to vinification vessels; concrete and stainless steel and with different shapes and sizes. It was hard for my father to see such changes but he believed in the process, especially when I told him how much money we would save on oak barrels! Yet we have invested way more money in the vineyard than we have saved on barrels.’

From 2018 onwards, the wines have gone from strength to strength. There’s an emphasis on brightness and florality, and a distinct salinity shows through. There can be a slight reductive note but that is by design and adds a tension to the wines in their youth. The 2022 is the latest release, through La Place de Bordeaux, and is the finest vintage yet. Finca Canal Uco is fast becoming one of Argentina’s finest Malbecs and stands as a testament to the innovation and dedication shown by the Zuccardi family.