"Cara Sucia Cereza 2018 is without doubt the most exciting summer red we’ve stumbled across in years. We’ve never tasted anything quite like it and wish that Durigutti had made more than 3,000 bottles.
The grape variety Cereza, meaning “cherry”, is actually a white grape variety with a pink skin, much like Pinot Gris or Gewürztraminer. It’s thought to have been brought to Argentina by Spanish settlers and is often used to make rustic and deeply coloured white or rosé for the locals. So it’s rarely makes it to these shores. However, Durigutti have an old vine plot in Rivadavia that was planted in 1940, and they manage to extract a huge amount of colour from those concentrated grapes, creating a juicy and quite frankly mindboggling red wine.
Cara Sucia means “dirty face”, inspired by the winemaking brothers who grew up on these dusty vineyards. But there’s nothing dirty about their wine. It’s aged in concrete eggs so there’s no oak to mask the vibrant fruit, and it’s bottled without filtering or fining making it vegan-friendly. Cara Sucia Cereza 2018 pops in your mouth like a summer pudding, it’s just as bright as a button. A gentle sense of sweetness to the fruit makes it a revelation with spicy food like the umami side of Thai and Indonesian street food, or tacos, arepas and curries. And with super low tannins, you can even chill it lightly for enjoying over a blissful lunch or picnic in the summer sunshine.
Durigutti is a family winery set up by two strapping brothers Héctor and Pablo, who are Mendoza born and bred. Located in the heart to Lujan de Cuyo, seen by many as Argentina’s finest winemaking area, they produce Argentine classics like Malbec and Torrontes, but also some of the country’s most innovative and thrilling wines." - Harvey Nichols