40/40

Argentinien

40/40, Lucas Pfister's winery, is located in Ugarteche, a small town directly on the 40th parallel south and on the famous Ruta 40, which leads from the northern Andes of Argentina down to Tierra del Fuego. In the shadow of snow-capped mountains, he presses “wines without make-up” from grape varieties that are deeply connected to Argentina's wine-growing history and which show that the idea of bringing unadulterated wines into the bottle has long since spread around the world.

Lucas Pfister is at home in many worlds. Despite his name, he was born in Argentina. He also lives there from October to March, during the meridional winter, which is known to be quite hot and in which the grapes for his 40/40 series thrive. From April to September, on the other hand, he can be found in South Tyrol, where he works at Alois Lageder's biodynamic winery during the warm season. In the years before that, he studied oenology in Bordeaux, Montpellier and Lisbon and spent time in Saint-Emilion, Margaret River in Western Australia and in Baden.

The experience he has gained there and there is incorporated into his 40/40 (cuarenta/cuarenta) wine project, which he launched at his home in Ugarteche in 2015. There, he has branched off two hectares from his parents' 60-hectare vineyard, on whose five terraces he implements his own ideas. In a few words, they are committed to the principles of the natural wine movement, but also have a deep connection to the natural and cultural conditions of his quite spectacular surroundings.

The soils of his vineyards are astonishingly heterogeneous. Between scree and sand, there are always clayey sections. The climate, on the other hand, is consistently hot and dry. To counteract the often extremely high temperatures, Lucas cultivates his vines in the classic parral system, a completely closed pergola that provides the grapes with the shade they need.

He also floods his vineyards from time to time - another tradition in Argentinian viticulture - in order to provide them with water at least occasionally.

In his 40/40 series, Lucas makes a total of eight wines, all of which are organically grown and fermented with wild yeasts, but three of which - his Otro Andar line - are decidedly natural wines. He only uses grape varieties that are traditionally associated with Argentina (Torrontes, Malbec, Bonarda) and which, thanks to the desert-like conditions, all manage with indigineous rootstocks.

Lucas picks them early in the year to preserve their freshness and avoids to add acidity, does not destem the grapes, keeps the maceration time rather short for red wines, but also leaves his Torrontes in contact with the skins for a few days (about three days) - although you should think of his macerations more like tea infusions: they are very gentle extractions at rather cooler temperatures, which mainly serve to give the wines some additional structure and aromas.

The three wines are each matured for 12 months in used French barriques.  They are coarsely filtered and minimally sulphurized before bottling.

Wines from 40/40

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