Familia Zuccardi
Finca Piedra Infinita
Mendoza
2018

The producer

In 1963, the Zuccardi family planted their first vines in Maipu, Mendoza. Today, third generation, Sebastian, is running the estate and in 2008 he introduced a research and development space to the estate, which is dedicated to studying terroir, clime, and soil types, and as such has had huge impact on the continued high-quality wines which Zuccardi is known for. Sebastian is also known for seeking out higher and higher altitude vineyards in the Andes thus making wines of increasing purity and aromatic freshness.

Based in the Valle de Uco, at 1,100 meters above sea level in the Altamira vineyard, Zuccardi today owns 340 hectares of vineyards and produce a range of wines from different terroirs and varietals. The single vineyard expressions are from different parts of the Altamira vineyard, with flagship wine ‘Piedra Infinita’ being their ultimate tasting experience. In 2016 they completed the building of the new fully eco-friendly and ultra-modern winery and in 2020 was voted the World’s Best Vineyard for the second consecutive year.

The wine

The “Finca Piedra Infinita” Malbec comes from a 0.78-hectare parcel, at 1,100 meters above sea level, in the western part of the Altamira vineyard. Soils are shallow alluvial on a subsoil of calcareous stones. The wine is pure Malbec, which is fermented in concrete vats, followed by ageing in concrete, to preserve the purity of the fruit and terroir expression.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.