Masi Tupungato Passo Doble 2022
Fragrant and complex on the nose with ripe fruits-of-the-forest aromas enhanced by notes of cinnamon and vanilla. Up-front and powerful on the palate with hints of spice and and cooked cherries followed by a long appetising finish.
Grapes for this wine are grown organically at an altitude of 950-1050 metres above sea level in the Tupungato Valley. The ground is stony, sandy and chalky with a good content of organic and mineral elements. Rainfall is very low, at 250mm, mostly occurring in summer downpours, and compared to most of Mendoza, night time temperatures are cooler here, giving fresher acidity.
The vinification technique used for the Passo Doble is a Masi speciality: double fermentation. After soft-pressing of the Malbec grapes, on-skin fermentation lasted sixteen days at 21-23ºC in stainless steel tanks. The second fermentation was induced with selected yeasts and used the whole Corvina grapes, given a brief appassimento treatment before crushing. This fermentation lasted fifteen days and was followed by the malolactic fermentation. The wine then spent nine months in French oak barriques, with thirty percent new wood.
| RRP | £15.50 |
| Vintage | 2022 |
| Alcoholic strength | 14% |
| Country | Argentina |
| Region | Mendoza |
| Subregion | Tupungato |
| Grapes | Malbec 85%, Corvina 15% |
| Contains sulphites | Yes |
| Vegetarian | Yes |
| Vegan | Yes |
| Milk | No |
| Eggs | No |
| Organic | Yes |
| Biodynamic | No |
| Closure | Screwcap |
Though run by the Boscaini family for six generations, it is really in the last fifty years that Masi has established itself as one of the Veneto’s most innovative wine producers. In the late 1950s, they identified certain historic vineyard plots which are vinified as Amarone and bottled separately to this day. In 1964, they launched the now-legendary Campofiorin, which revived the technique of a second fermentation with semi-dried grapes. Masi have also rescued the ancient Oseleta variety from extinction, and continue to use it in two of their celebrated “Supervenetian” wines.
