The Vines of Mendoza | Blog

Archive for the ‘Experiences’ Category

« Older Entries

Start your weekend today! Yes on a Wednesday…Watermelon and Red Wine Cocktail

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Hi there! As the tittle of the post suggests…let’s start our weekend on a Wednesday! and get slowly into the mood.

I’m aware that this cocktail might sound like a weird combination, but if you try it I’m sure you are going to change your mind immediately! It’s very refreshing, try it with different varietals like Malbec, Syrah, or Petit Verdot  and compare different characteristics that each varietal gives to the drink combined with the watermelon.

Here are some great wines that you can get in our online store:

Monte Cinco Petit Verdot 2007  bold tannins and black fruit.

Mil Vientos Syrah 2006  is like walking slowly down a tree-lined lane after a summer rain shower!

Giménez Riili Malbec 2006 cherry and raspberry round out in your mouth…

Now the recipe! Cheers!
Ingredients

•    about 1/4 whole melon piece – watermelon
•    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•    1/4 cup fresh lime juice
•    Dark brown sugar to taste (optional)
•    2 cups chilled full-bodied  red wine
•    1/2 cup roughly chopped toasted pecans

1. Cut watermelon flesh into large pieces. Cut central part of flesh without seeds into enough tiny cubes to make 1 cup.

2. Put remaining flesh into a food processor, and pulse it enough to puree it without breaking seeds. Strain. You should have 2 cups. Stir in vanilla, lime juice and, if desired, sugar to taste.

3. Mix red wine with the watermelon puree. Serve in goblets, straight up or over ice, with some cubes of watermelon and pecans in each glass.

Serve 6

Source NY Times

Posted in Experiences, Tasting Notes | No Comments »


Think of Jose | José de San Martín

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

By Vince Meldrum

I have been thinking about this post for a long time — which inevitably means it is going to be disappointing to both me and whoever reads it. I find that if you think about something too much it kills the best part of whatever idea got you started in the first place. But, in this case, I really had no idea where this post was going and so there is very little chance that I will kill the best part of the idea.

So, what have I been thinking about? General Jose de San Martin. Mendoza (and really all of Argentina) is riddled with statues, plazas, streets, schools, monuments dedicated to General José de San Martin. Why am I wondering about General San Martin in the middle of the night in the dead of winter? No reason really. But it is amazing to me how many things are named for San Martin in Argentina. Every city we have been to, regardless of size has a street named for the good general. It is usually the main street in town.

Random side note: In Utah the main street in every town is “State Street” – who was State and what did he do to have every main street named after him?

Who was San Martin? Are you crazy? That is like saying who was George Washington! Ok, a bit over the top there. But it is time for a bit of Argentine history.

San Martin is revered (not just liked or honored – revered I say!) in Argentina as the military hero who brought independence to the country; in Chile as the general who helped Bernardo O’Higgins oust the Spanish royalists; in Peru as the man who ended the vice-royalty system and liberated the country. His honorary titles included:

Generalissimo of the Ejército Unido de los Andes y de Chile
Fundador de la Libertad del Peru
Knight of the Andes
Santo de la Espada – Argentina’s greatest hero

One historian put San Martin’s legacy in these terms: He knew how to win. Not a bad way to be known if you are a general.

San Martin began his military training at age 13 in Madrid. While in Madrid he became fast friends with Bernardo O’Higgins, who would become the other half of a famed duo that would oust the Spanish from South America.

A side note on Bernardo O’Higgins: He was sent to study in Europe by his father, Ambrioso O’Higgins. The elder O’Higgins failed to publicly acknowledge the young Bernardo as his son (the younger Bernardo was the child of a local Chilean lady of some prominence – not the elder O’Higgins’ wife) and never really new him. The elder O’Higgins was the Spanish Governor of Chile at the time and later became the Viceroy of Peru. So what is the payback for not getting to know your son? He grows up and liberates Chile and Peru from Spain – I bet the Spanish were none to pleased with the elder O’Higgins after that little indiscretion.

Anyway, San Martín started his reputation for defeating the Spanish in 1813 when he rousted royalist forces at San Lorenzo. While he felt good about pushing the Spanish out of Argentina, he recognized that Argentina could not be free until the threat from Chile and Peru, both strongly Spanish royalist, ended.

In 1817 San Martin and O’Higgins led their combined armies over a pass nearly 15,000 feet high in the Andes Mountains. The march over the Andes has been memorialized in Mendoza at the Hill of the Glory.

http://www.veomendoza.com.ar/web/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/sanmartincrossestheandes.jpg

Following Chile’s independence, San Martin was offered the supreme dictatorship of Chile. He refused the honor. A few years later when he pulled off a similar victory in Peru he was offered the supreme dictatorship of Peru, which he also refused. Perhaps he was looking for a better offer.

There is a lot more to the story, but suffice it to say General San Martin did a lot. For all of his efforts he has a park (Parque de San Martin,) and a plaza (Plaza de San Martin,) named after him in Mendoza.

Hope that wasn’t too boring – like I said it has been banging around in my head for a while – I should have let it out earlier.

http://ayearinmendoza.blogspot.com/2006/07/thinking-of-jose.html#links

Posted in Experiences | No Comments »


The Vines Weekly Wine Series | Sensory Tasting

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

So over the last couple of weeks, we have gone over how to conduct blind tastings, general tasting techniques and now there is more fun to be had- sensory tastings! This is actually a really good way to start to hone what you smell with what you are able to cognitively recognize. How many times are you lured by the smell of movie theater popcorn, a baked cherry pie, fresh from the oven- you have a vast olfactory memory but at times it is hard to put it into words.

How many times have you said this smell reminds me of something but you just can’t quite put your finger on it.

Test Your Nose

So to test your olfactory senses- cut up slices of banana, orange, lemon, chocolate, cinnamon, cumin, or put mashed berries, tobacco, whatever you have ever thought you could smell in a wine and place them in a set of glasses and put your nose to work. You can also add a little bit of neutral alcohol (or as Mariana tells me, cheap wine) and it will make the aromas a bit stronger in the glass.

You can also invest in a set of essences from Nez de vin, but they tend to be a bit synthetic so it is always better to try and use natural ingredients when you can. Below is a brief description of how Michael, Mariana and I approach sensory tasting at The Vines Tasting Room in downtown Mendoza, Argentina.

And for some tips to help you out with Argentina’s emblematic varietals, the Torrontes, Bonarda and Malbec we have created the following. If you just happen to be in Mendoza or are planning a trip in the near future, make sure to come by the Tasting Room to try one of our guided sensory tastings, where one of our servers can explain all the finer aspects of how to taste and compare essences.

Salud!

The Argentine Sensory Experience

Posted in Experiences, Videos | No Comments »


EVENTOS SEMANALES | WEEKLY EVENTS

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

The Vines of Mendoza | Eventos Semanales

barra_news_tastingroom.jpg

Decantados 50% Off en copas

Todos los miércoles y sábados | 7 a 9pm

decantados2.jpg

barra_news_vinoteca.jpg

Degustación de Vinos y Tapas

Jueves 5  de Agosto | 8 a 10 pm | $45

Maridaje con vinos de Bodega RUCA MALEN .Incluye dos copas de vino acompañadas de variedad de tapas.
Descuentos especiales en los productos de esta bodega.

Reservas: events@vinesofmendoza.com Tel. +54 (0261) 438 1031

thevines.gif

Posted in Experiences, Life in Mendoza | No Comments »


The Vines Weekly Wine Series | Water Tasting (Yes- H20!)

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Use your wine tasting techniques on water

So last week we talked about the importance of blind tastings, its about getting in touch with your senses- sometimes we are going mach 10 and forget to stop and savor the best italian panini you have ever tasted or the most amazing nuances in a Pinot Noir. So to up the ante we decided to host a water tasting- yes your average H2O, which comprises over 96% of our bodies.

After doing a little research I was stunned that there is so much information on the web about tasting water. Who knew?! (except the people that organized the International Water Tasting Competition of course) So we hosted our own water tasting- only still water this time, with a few of The Vines staff members in our Mendoza Tasting Room, and used all the techniques that we have learned from wine to evaluate the sensory properties of these waters.

So what you want to think about is:

1. Smell- what do you smell, is it neutral, smell like chloride, or off smells (hopefully not)

2. Texture- how does the water coat your mouth, does it slide smoothly, is there stickiness

3. Taste- are there any apparent outstanding flavors that you can perceive and do you like/dislike them and how do they compare to the other waters that you are tasting

4. Finish- is there an aftertaste, any metallic flavors, or does it simply melt away?

So, you too can host a water tasting to prep for your wine tasting- see its not all for snobby sommeliers.

I found this super helpful resource from Bottled Water of the World (they must have a lobbying group for sure)

How to Conduct a Water Tasting

Written by Michael Mascha

A tasting provides the best introduction to the surprising richness of epicurean experiences with water. Here are directions for conducting your own.
•    Chill all the waters to about 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13°C) to nicely showcase the differences in the waters. Make sure they stay at the same temperature throughout the tasting otherwise their qualities (or the perception of them) will change.
•    You will need two to three proper water glasses per person. Ideally, have each flight in the glasses at the same time.
•    Sometimes it’s fun to have pure H2O available to calibrate your palate.
•    Serve bread or crackers, but not salty food.
•    Make notes if you wish, describing how the water feels (short, long, focused, wide, and so forth).
Because the waters vary significantly in mineral content, mouthfeel, and other characteristics, it will be hard to pick a best water. Instead, think of foods that would be good complements to
particular waters.

So the waters that we tasted:

Villivicencia- plastic bottle | 128 mg/l | Magnesium 40.8mg/l | Potassium 5.3 mg/l | Calcium 39.2 mg/l

Evian- they are French and do not need to put anything on ze bottle

Southern Sky- glass bottle | Sodium 41mg/l | Magnesium 3 mg/l | Potassium 23mg/l | Calcium 40mg/l | pH 8

Tap water- don’t think I want to know

So for more information on water tasting- maybe check out the International Water Tasting Competition- the best part is that the website is 2 camels, ha! http://www.2camels.com/international-water-tasting-contest.php

Posted in Experiences, Tasting Notes, Videos | No Comments »


The Vines Weekly Wine Series | Why Blind Tastings?

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Here at The Vines of Mendoza we taste a lot of wine blind, to pick wines for our online wine shop, our Acequia Wine Clubs as well as to educate our Private Vineyard Estate owners about different characteristics that different varietals have. While there is a lot of scepticism about blind tastings, its great to get people’s honest, gut reactions to a wine. It gives you the opportunity to taste wines in “context,” comparing and contrasting the scents, tastes and textures of one wine against others in a similar price range, the same vintage or the same region to see if there are terroir similarities, or vintage or winemaker differences.

Obviously wines are experiential and they can change depending on the food, the atmosphere and even the friends that you are with- but to get a birds eye view into a wine it is often interesting to taste it blind. You might even surprise yourself about which wines are your favorites.

So the big question- why blind tastings? You take away all your thoughts and replace them with senses. You get to know what your nose smells, your mouth tastes, and how your brain thinks. There is no right or wrong answer- all you have to do is experience.


Here are some of our tips to host your own blind tasting:

SET UP

Items needed: Wine glasses, spit bucket(s), pens, crackers to cleanse your palate, bags to cover the bottles and score sheets to rate the smell, taste, color and finish- see below.
Make sure your tasting space is well-lit to allow you to examine the color of each wine.
Use a different wine glasses for each wine. This will allow you to compare the wines against each other and revisit
each wine to see how they develop throughout the tasting.
All red wines should be open one hour prior to tasting and served at a temperature of 64 degrees F.
White wines should be served chilled at 50 degrees F.

Consider adding a selection of “sample aromas” to your tasting. It is an excellent (and fun!) way to help you search for those words that describe the aroma, bouquet and flavor of each wine. Place another set of wine glasses on the
table with a small amount of some of the following items in each glass: Grapefruit, pear, grass, vanilla, honey, cinnamon, cloves, black peppercorns, licorice, dark chocolate, coffee, strawberry,
raspberry, cherry, fruit jams, soil.

TASTING
Pour approximately one ounce (about one inch) of each wine in its respective glass (Wine 1 in Glass 1, Wine 2 in Glass
2, etc.). Try to keep some of each wine so you can re-taste each one the next day to see how the wine develops.
Follow the enclosed Wine Tasting Guide to analyze each wine and record your observations and scores on the respective
scoring sheets. Take your time and re-visit each wine throughout the tasting.

Posted in Experiences, Tasting Notes | No Comments »


CA winemakers Taste Iconic Malbecs- The Results

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

A good friend of mine, Ashley Hepworth, winemaker for Joseph Phelps vineyards in Napa, is in quite a few tasting groups in California and often creates different tastings around regions, vintages, and varietals. She recently contacted me for some suggestions regarding Malbecs from Argentina and I was more than happy to suggest my favorites! We narrowed the wines down to what was currently available in the US market, as well as included some larger and smaller producers. We deduced that 2005 was the vintage that was most widely available for these iconic Malbecs, that included Catena Zapata’s Adrianna Vineyard, Monteviejo’s Lindaflor, Achaval Ferrer’s Altamira, Urraca’s Familia Langley and the Montecinco Oak.

She and a group of 8 high profile winemakers sat down to a double blind tasting. This means that only she knew what they were tasting- the winemakers had to come up with the varietal and region and if possible year, but that is extremely difficult if you have not passed your sommelier course recently.

The results were interesting- not one of them guessed that it was Malbec! It goes to show that Malbec has many different personalities as well as winemaking styles, depending on the winemakers philosophy, region, fermentation and production practices and oak aging. Here are the results, with the winner being Catena Zapata’s Adrianna Vineyard. Go ahead, buy the wines yourselves and see what your group comes up with!

However the results were not unanimous so everyone does have a different palate. Here are the results per person, ranking each of the wines above. Even though Catena won, it was the 3rd favorite wine for over half of the tastings, so it ranked higher in points overall but if you asked one person, they would have said another wine was their favorite. So don’t be intimidated that your wine preferences aren’t the same as others, even the winemakers don’t agree!

Posted in Experiences, Tasting Notes | 2 Comments »


Feliz día del amigo! Happy friends day!

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Because we are so friendly!!!!!!!

Día del Amigo (Spanish for Friend’s Day) is a celebration of friendship, held annually on July 20, mainly in Argentina and Uruguay, but also in some other countries.

Though Friend’s Day has always been respected, in recent years it has turned into a very popular mass phenomenon (yes, yes we are kinda crazy people).

In 2005, too many well-wishing friends led to a temporary breakdown of the mobile phone network, comparable to the one experienced in 2004 on Christmas and New Year’s Day. The newspaper reported that seats in most restaurants, bars and other establishments were already booked out completely a week before the celebration, so if you are ever in Argentina at Friend’s Day, make sure you have a reservation for dinner made in advanced, and if you have not, please be patient and have a bottle of wine while waiting in line for a decent table :) . We can make some recommendations…. as always…

For such a special date I would start with a lovely Gimenez Riili Perpetuum Espumante 2008 and as I’m sure you will be waiting for a WHILE, here you are other lovely options! Ha! Carmelo Patti Espumante 2004, lovingly handmade, it bursts in the mouth or Norberto B. Richiardi Sparkling Wine, a special sparkler for this occasion!

Or… you can invite your friends over, prepare a really cool dinner, what about Lasagna? (it’s freezing here, believe me!) paired with Mairena Bonarda 2006 (Italian grape + Italian pasta, BUONISSIMO!). And as my grand mother says ‘Mangia la pasta che ti fa benne! ‘, which means, ‘Eat pasta. It’s good for you!’, in Italian. So…go get your friends and celebrate!!

Ciao, Ciao! Arrivederci!

Ps: There’s also lots of really fun and creative advertisement campaigns, like this one called ARMA UNA BOMBA (‘Let’s set a bomb,’ in Spanish). So if your friends don’t really now you,  they get a bomb specially made for them! http://www.quilmesdiadelamigo.com/

Another funny ad about Friend’s Day  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-cimkb-Ojc&feature=related

Posted in Experiences, Life in Mendoza | No Comments »


It’s snowing! yay!

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

If you’ve ever been down here during the Winter you probably know that it ALMOST never snows in the city but today, SURPRISE!  When we woke up this morning the view was white!

Check out Fernando Sosa’s amazing pictures!!! Thanks Fernando!
I’m off to make some snow angels! haha!


Rosedal


Parque General San Martin Gates

Winter Pics by Fernando Sosa http://picasaweb.google.com/fjsosa/MendozaUnderSnow#slideshow/5494121275229997474

Posted in Experiences, Photos | 2 Comments »


THE VINES OF MENDOZA | WINE NAMING COMPETITION!

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

acontest_tvomvert.jpg

We would like all of our friends and family help us create a name for
The Vines of Mendoza wines.

We planted our first vines in the wilderness of the Uco Valley in 2007 and after 4 years of hard work, we will be releasing our wine throughout the United States, Argentina and the globe beginning in 2011. The 2010 vintage is our first wine from our vineyard in the Uco Valley and we are seeking the perfect name for it.

Submission Guidelines:
1. First and foremost the name has to be memorable and easy to say

2. Keep it short – 2 words maximum

3. It has to read well both in English and Spanish (however it can be in either language).

4. The name could reflect the characteristics of Argentina and the Uco Valley (e.g. tango, gauchos, Andes, etc.) or be completely original

5. If you are or were a vineyard owner in Argentina, what would you name your dream wine?

6. You could even invent a word from scratch- (For example “Google”- who knew it was going to be so huge back when two IT geeks created a simple search engine)

We will review all of the submissions and pick a winning name.  The person who submits the winning name will receive 10 cases of personally signed and labeled 2010 “Vines of Mendoza” Malbec wine made from our property in the Uco Valley (*Please see full competition rules).

Some restrictions apply, please read the complete contest rules prior to submitting your ideas.  Put on your creative thinking caps and click here to submit your idea! Multiple submissions (up to 10 per person) are allowed.

Cheers!

The Vines of Mendoza

Posted in Experiences | No Comments »


« Older Entries