FacebookInstagramYouTube
Kukkula Wines
IMG 6990
Kukkula aato nv

Aatto

Aat­to is prob­a­bly our most unusu­al, exot­ic wine, both aro­mat­i­cal­ly and in the fla­vor profile.

It’s made up of most­ly Counoise and Mourve­dre, with small amounts of Grenache.

2019 Aatto


Drink­ing Win­dow 2024 — 2030

A cin­na­mon and clove dust­ing gives way to men­tho­lat­ed herbs and crushed black­ber­ries as the 2019 Aat­to blos­soms in the glass. This is tex­tu­ral­ly thrilling, creamy yet spry, with cool­ing acid­i­ty, min­er­al tones and cit­rus-tinged wild berries that stim­u­late the palate. There’s a sense of bound­less ener­gy as the 2019 fin­ish­es spicy and long. Crunchy red and blue fruits slow­ly fade. The Aat­to goes down too eas­i­ly, mak­ing it almost impos­si­ble to sense the 16% abv with­in. It’s a blend of 45% Counoise, 35% Mourvèdre and 20% Grenache. 94+ pts

Eric Gui­do — Vinous

Technical Details


  • Vintage 2019
  • PH 3.8
  • TA .52
  • Alcohol 15.9%
  • Production 248 cases

Finnish for, eve”, as in Christ­mas Eve. My dad’s name; he was born on Christ­mas Eve (Joulu Aatto).

My dad was a dream­er, like me. I guess I got his rest­less DNA. He was born in Fin­land in 1932, was essen­tial­ly orphaned by the time he was 10, jumped on a ship with one of his broth­ers to Cana­da in his ear­ly-20s, met my mom, had kids, and ulti­mate­ly moved us to South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. The land of opportunity!

Although he real­ized some of that oppor­tu­ni­ty, he nev­er quite got a hold of the reins the way he envi­sioned. He inspired me to real­ize that dream. I feel total­ly priv­i­leged to be here today, and because of that I give my dad a nod, an acknowl­edge­ment that I’m here because of his dreams.