#100 Wine Spectator Top 100 (2011 edition - 2009 vintage)
94-Points by James Suckling.
These 4 hectares of vineyards were planted in 1955. The vines are massale selection, original rootstock ungrafted, so there is nothing clonal about these vines, and each one is genetically different from the other. A full-bodied red with olives, blackberries, wild blueberries, mussel shells and hints of licorice on the nose. Fresh and creamy, structured too, with a delicious saline minerality and fine, tea-like tannins. Drink or hold.
Blend: 95% Malbec & 5% Merlot.
 
Bodega Noemia de Patagonia is an Argentine wine estate, located in the Rio Negro wine region of Patagonia. It is best known for red wines based on the Malbec grape variety.
Rio Negro is a desert region, some 1000 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, 450km east of the Andes, and 500km west of the Atlantic Ocean. The valley's macroclimate is moderated by the Neuquén and Limay Rivers. These flow from the Andes and join to form the Rio Negro.
The valley itself is a glacial formation, 25km wide and 500km long. In the 1920s and 1930s, British settlers used the rivers to irrigate the area. Vineyards were first planted around this time.
Italian wine producer Countess Noemi Marone Cinzano and Danish winemaker Hans Vinding-Diers formed their estate when discovering one such plot of old Malbec vines in a remote corner of the Rio Negro Valley. Initially they bought the grapes from the owners, making their first wine in 2001 using fibreglass tanks and crushing by foot. The partners purchased the vineyard in 2004, and began to restore it.
Estate vineyards are certified organic and farmed according to biodynamic principals. Fruit is handpicked at dawn and transported directly to the winery. Here selection takes place on a berry by berry basis.
Ferments take place in conventional concrete fermentation tanks, plus Nomblot eggs. They begin spontaneously thanks to ambient yeasts. No sulphur or other additives are used. Juice and wines are usually moved by gravity, rather than pumps, to avoid micro oxygenation. Wines are matured in French oak barrels from the Surtep and Darnajou cooperages.
There are four red wines in the range, beginning with A Lisa. This is typically a 90:10 blend of Malbec and Merlot, sometimes including a dash of Petit Verdot. Fruit is sourced from leased vineyards and a plot in Valle Azul established in 2004. It is aged in a mix of old oak barrels and stainless steel.
J. Alberto is a single vineyard wine of 95 percent Malbec plus a little Merlot. It comes from a 4 hectare parcel planted in 1955 which is certified Organic and farmed biodynamically. It spends 11 months in one year old barrels.
Due ("2") is a 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon bottling, from vineyards planted in the 1940s and restored in 2005. It is only sold in years when the crop of this grape variety is thought exceptional.
The top wine is simply called Bodega Noemia. It is made of Malbec from the original vineyard purchase; a 1.5ha parcel planted in 1932 from pre-phylloxera cuttings. It is aged mainly in new French barriques.