Description
The Zuccardi story starts with Tito Zuccardi. A civil engineer who has a new irrigation idea based on underground channels. He moved from the North of Argentina to Mendoza where he planted a show vineyard in the 1940s to demonstrate his invention.
About 15 years later, when they were making wine from these vineyards, Tito’s son Jose got involved and his goal was to improve the business of Zuccardi through better quality wine and export sales. The Zuccardi brand changes from local civil engineer to wine producer. Fast forward to Sebastian Zuccardi, 3rd Generation, who is a trained agronomist by the mid-noughties, he reckons the family should follow suit of Nicholas Catena Zapata and plant high into the Uco Valley at 1100m above sea level.
The Finca Vineyard was planted in 2009. It is Piedra Infinita; Infinite stones. This is because it took 3 months for trucks to carry out the boulders which covered the top soil of the site. Sebastian practically lived up there during this arduous process. But it was worth it! In 2020 it was awarded the Worlds Best vineyard for the second time and also produced Zuccardi’s first 100 pointer in 2016.
Sebastián Zuccardi took the initiative in 2008 to establish a research and development area in the winery with a sole purpose of studying the terroir and diverse variables that affect wine quality in scientific detail – the goal in his own words was “not to strive for perfect wines, but wines that express the place, the region”.
Zuccardi’s Finca Piedra Infinita was created in order to highlight the concept of terroir and reveal the characteristic of the unique and incomparable vineyard from which it takes its name. The critical acclaim for this wine has been spectacular from the start, but the wines continue to go from strength to strength, with leading critics stating that the 2018 vintage is “…as good as it gets” (Luis Gutierrez, WA) and “a beauty by all accounts” (99/100 – James Suckling) (99/100 Luis Gutierrez)
