Botanico Chardonnay
⏳ Drinking Window
2021 - 2024
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Grilled sea bass, roasted poultry with herbs, creamy mushroom risotto
✨ Technical Specifications
Zuccardi's Botánico Chardonnay is a groundbreaking white wine that redefines Argentine Chardonnay, hailing from the high-altitude, extreme terroir of Gualtallary in the Uco Valley. Grown at over 1,400 meters above sea level on highly calcareous, gravelly soils, this wine is a pure expression of place. Winemaker Sebastián Zuccardi eschews oak entirely for this cuvée, fermenting and aging the wine exclusively in concrete eggs to preserve its intense minerality, laser-like acidity, and raw energy. The name Botánico pays homage to the native desert herbs, such as jarilla and wild thyme, that carpet the Gualtallary landscape and subtly infuse the wine's complex aromatic profile. It stands as a monument to modern, cool-climate Argentine viticulture, showcasing a tense, saline, and chalky character.
🍾 About the Producer
Familia Zuccardi was founded in 1963 by engineer Alberto 'Tito' Zuccardi, who planted experimental vines in Mendoza to demonstrate an innovative irrigation system. Under the stewardship of his son José Alberto and grandson Sebastián Zuccardi, the estate transformed into a vanguard of modern Argentine viticulture, shifting the focus decisively toward the high-altitude, cool-climate micro-terroirs of the Uco Valley. At elevations ranging from 1,000 to over 1,400 meters—most notably in Paraje Altamira, San Pablo, and Gualtallary—the estate farms on alluvial soils richly encrusted with calcium carbonate and marine limestone deposits. Farming avoids synthetic agrochemicals and embraces organic practices. Vinification prioritizes transparency and place, favoring spontaneous native-yeast fermentations in unlined concrete amphorae and minimal oak intervention. Renowned for parcel-specific Malbecs like Finca Piedra Infinita alongside taut, mineral white expressions such as Botanico Chardonnay and Polígonos Semillón, Zuccardi crafts wines marked by chiseled acidity, chalky tannins, and pristine Andean tension.
🍇 Grapes
Chardonnay
🍷 ABV
12.5-13%