Just Visit our online store and find your favorites or some new Malbecs that you have not yet sampled. Order one to try everyday for dinner and send us your tasting notes- we will post them on the blog to share with everyone!
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.
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!
We found Bodega El Porvenir‘s wines through our weekly blind tastings last year and I remember tasting through the wines and thinking what great quality, concentration and flavors in a wide range of varietals.
With our group of tasters that consists of around 7 people, we were unanimous with our approval of these wines- this almost never happens! We have a few wineries that fit that profile, where we seem to love all the wines that they make, and El Porvenir is definitely one of them.
He recently rated several of their wines with 90 points and above.
• Laborum Syrah 2005 – 91 points – Drink from 2011 – 2020
• Laborum Tannat 2005 – 91+ points – Drink from 2014 – 2025
• Laborum Malbec 2004 – 91+ points – Drink from 2007 – 2025
• Laborum Malbec 2005 – 90 points – Drink from 2011 – 2020
• Laborum Malbec – Cabernet 2005 – 90 points – Drink from 2011 – 2018
Check out The Vines online wine shop where we have the Tannat and the Syrah as well as their amazing blend named Amauta which at $36 is a steal. Also next week we will be introducing their Malbec and Torrontes so make sure you try all of their wines- you won’t be disappointed!
Salta, and Cafayate in particular, is an amazing place to visit- its a mixture between cactus and vineyards, desolate vistas and color soaked rocks. Located at 1750 meters, or 5,740 feet above sea level, it is one of the highest altitude vineyard terroirs in the world!
El Porvenir currently has 192 acres of their own vineyards, planted with the utmost care and divided into two estates: Río Seco and El Retiro.
The climatic characteristics of the zone of Cafayate are perfect for the development of high-level viticulture. With winemaker Luis Asmet and consulting winemaker Paul Hobbs, they are able to extract the best of what Salta has to offer.
The deep, sandy soil, poor and without limiting topsoils, gives a perfect base for cultivating vines and due to the altitude of the zone, the day-night difference (thermal amplitude) is 15- 18ºC (59-64ºF) during the vegetative cycle of the vine. This translates into a notable difference in the polyphenols in the wine compared to lower altitude zones, giving wines with better structure and color, more suited for oak aging and for the later storage and favorable evolution in the bottle.
In addition to at least 350 days of brilliant sunlight an average yearly rainfall of around only 120 millimeters and the absence of hail, it is one of Argentina’s top wine growing regions.
If you get the chance make sure that you stop by the winery in Cafayate- it is centrally located in town, which is an amazing experience in itself, and they offer personalized attention to learn more about their wines and the region. They offer personalized activities in which you can choose what you’d like to do. This could include touring the vineyards, winemaker-guided tastings, a typical regional lunch, horseback riding in the vineyards, a carriage ride, or a private appointment to buy wine direct in our cave.
Reservations should be made in advance by emailing tastingday@bodegaselporvenir.com or calling the winery.
It is winter in Mendoza and our gorgeous Andes Mountains are completely covered in snow. If you have ever come to Mendoza during this season, you will find that the nicest and sunniest part of the day is immediately after lunch – what we call siesta time. For this reason, we chose to do our barrel tasting at the finca, enjoying the warm siesta sun with the Andes as a backdrop. Who needs better inspiration than that?
Every week, Santiago Achaval, The Vines consulting winemaker, and Pablo Martorell, The Vines winemaker, do barrel tastings of the nearly 50 different wines that we are aging for our Private Vineyard Estates owners.
The wines are now undergoing malolactic fermentation and starting their vital journey of aging. It is necessary to monitor the wines during this process to ensure stability of the wine and the absence of any possible fault that might contaminate the wines.
At this stage, the main character of the wine is already determined. However, depending on the style of wine chosen by our clients, there are some small procedures that will need to be done in order to help achieve their desired style. For instance, if you want to improve the mid-palate structure of the wine, the number of battonage per month may vary. Battonage is the process of stirring the wine while it remains in its barrel on its yeast lees. This process results in the extraction of additional amino acids and mannoproteins from the yeast creating a “creamy” mouthfeel.
In essence, the main objective of these regular barrel tastings is to ensure a very good quality, observing the aging process in order to obtain the best characteristics out of each wine.
So to send you all into the weekend we would like to bestow you with some Argentine wine suggestions. Alejandrina, Mariana and I want to share a couple of our favorites. Try them out and let us know what you think! And while we may have expensive taste, these wines are well worth the splurge.
Mariana – 2007 Monteagrelo Syrah $30
Emily – 2006 Monteviejo blend $45
Alejandrina- 2007 Gran Lorca Poetico Petit Verdot $42
One of the advantages of being in the wine business is occasionally you have to be the guinea pig- trying new and interesting wines or unique wine pairings. One of my good friends, Marcela Lledo, is creating new wine pairings and tasting experiences for Bodega Navarro Correas. Located just outside of Mendoza city in Godoy Cruz, it offers an easy way to do a fast tasting of not only their sparkling wines but also their line of still wines. We obtained different gourmet products from Recetas de Entonces/Cristo de los Cerro and then went to work- what paired well with what, what nuances were overwhelmed, what pairings were plain god-awful- we noted our likes, dislikes and came up with the following combinations.
Sparkling Wine Pairings Navarro Correas and Recetas de Entonces
• Navarro Correa Extra Brut (Pinot/Chardonnay blend), Method Charmat. Suggested Pairing: Asparagas points or Eggplant a la siciliana
• Navarro Correa Brut Rose Malbec, Method Charmat. Suggested Pairing: Eggplant with mint and semi-sweet peppers
• Navarro Correa Grand Cuvee (Pinot/Chardonnay), method Champenoise. Suggested Pairing: Eggplant a la siciliana y sundried tomatoes. Opiconal: Mediterranean Tapenade.
Navarro Correas Wine Pairings and Recetas de Entonces
• Coleccion Privada Sauvignon Blanc. Suggested Pairing: Eggplants with mint, artichoke hearts in water or asparagus points
• Coleccion Privada Chardonnay. Suggested Pairing: Asparagus points and Eggplant with mint.
• Coleccion Privada Merlot. Suggested Pairing: Crackers with creme fraiche with a dab of roasted red pepper juice and asparagus points
• Alegoría Malbec. Suggested Pairing:sundried tomatoes- kick it up with crackers topped with creme fraiche, sundried tomatoes and mediterranean tapenade
• Alegoria Cabernet Sauvignon. Suggested Pairing: Mediterranean tapenade with sundried tomatoes.
• Tardio Alegoria, Late Harvest Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc. Suggested Pairing: Roasted red peppers
If you would like to try out these delectable pairings for yourself, make sure to schedule a visit to their tasting room on your next trip to Mendoza. They usually hold tours and winery visits Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10am, 12pm, and 3pm. Be sure to make a reservation- they pride themselves on their personalized service. Call Leo at 261-432-5521 or 261-15-507-1684.
Stock yourself up for Independence weekend!
25% off all of our wines in our online store.
CHEERS!
by Matt Kramer
Issue: June 30, 2010
LUJÁN DE CUYO, Argentina-For a guy with an MBA from Stanford, Santiago Achával can sound like a mystic. “All the great Malbec vineyards I’ve walked in have a serenity.” He smiles when he says this, but he’s serious.
Achával, 49, came to the Mendoza region in search not just of Malbec (finding that is no more difficult than locating sand on a beach) but of great Malbec. Make no mistake: The Mendoza region, with its 356,000 acres of vines, harbors great Malbec. But when Achával started his search in the late 1990s, such diamonds were decidedly rough.
“When we acquired our first vineyard, Finca Altamira, in March 1999, two-thirds of the vines were nonyielding,” he recalls. “It was a very old vineyard and we bought [it] for the price of the raw land. The seller was happy that we didn’t ask for a discount for having to rip out the old vines!”
Achával had no intention of removing the old vines, of course. Quite the opposite-he wanted to nurture them. “Even as late as 1999, people didn’t want old vines,” he says. “For years the government encouraged growers to rip out old vineyards and plant new ones because they are more productive.”
What makes Achával’s story more interesting yet is that he is not a winemaker. That’s Roberto Cipresso begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, a highly regarded Tuscan enologist who’s a minority partner in Achával-Ferrer.
“I was just a wine enthusiast,” Achával admits. “And not only that, I’m from Córdoba, not Mendoza.” Córdoba is 380 miles east of Mendoza, about a seven-hour drive.
He continues to live in Córdoba and “commutes” to the winery. A sizable proportion of his time is spent traveling, especially in the U.S. (by far his single-biggest market) promoting his wines.
This promotion is essential if only because the three Achával-Ferrer single-vineyard bottlings-Finca Altamira, Finca Mirador and Finca Bella Vista-sell for some of the highest prices of any Malbec made in Argentina, upwards of $100 a bottle.
Asking such a price, when genuinely good Malbecs sell for as little as $10 a bottle, borders on the quixotic, if not in some eyes the downright traitorous. (You might recall a similar saga with Italy’s Angelo Gaja when, in the 1980s, he demanded prices well in excess of what others thought “proper” for an Italian wine, no matter how good.)
Achával knows that he has to deliver. And he knows that this, in turn, requires two things: very old vines and very low yields. “When we bought our vineyards, the old vines were trained to produce 3 to 4 tons an acre. You can get good, decent fruit at that level. But no minerality. So each year we kept reducing the yield. Finally we arrived at the quality we wanted: It requires a yield of 1 ton an acre.
“We also discovered something else: You can’t make those ancient vines go from what they were used to producing to 1 ton an acre. It’s like you’ve got a former weightlifter and you’re training him to a new sport. It takes three to four years to get them there.”
He points out another benefit from such low yields from old vines. “We harvest two to three weeks before everyone else. This is because the low yields give riper tannins sooner. It also means that our alcohol levels are moderate. This year, for example, our average alcohol level, fermented completely dry, is 13.3 percent.”
The results are stunning, especially the showcase single-vineyard wines. These are Malbecs a Burgundian could love, as each is distinctively, even dramatically, different. Finca Altamira (14 acres), from the La Consulta district of the Uco Valley 50 miles south of Mendoza, displays rich, intense wild cherry-with-a tang fruit.
Its opposite is the more delicate Finca Bella Vista (10 acres), which is flowery, with pronounced mineral notes-a Chambolle-Musigny among Malbecs. Finca Mirador (14 acres), also in Luján de Cuyo, is rich and chocolaty, with hints of minerality, tobacco, dried cherry and spices. It seems to mature the soonest of the three.
The best deal, by the way, is Achával-Ferrer’s “Mendoza” Malbec, which is blended from four other vineyards, three of them boasting vines 80 to 100 years old. Offering the signature rich, lush style of the pricier single-vineyard wines, it also delivers a surprising measure of their characters at a much lower price ($22).
Matt Kramer has contributed to Wine Spectator regularly since 1985.
HISTORICAL FACTS
Brief summary of the May Revolution
The so-called Revolution of May was a historical process that resulted in the breaking of colonial ties with Spain in 1810 and enabled the road to independence, on July 9, 1816. The events of May did not crystallize over a liberating movement that came looking for, since 1806, greater political and economic participation of the Creoles. Thus, May 22, 1810, after he received news of the fall of the Spanish crown in the hands of French, Creole convened an open forum which had to be accepted by the Viceroy Cisneros, representing Spain in the country . After 4 days of debates and uprisings, it was decided to form a Board Creole assuming the national government until the Spanish Crown was liberated from French domination. Thus, the popular government was formed by intellectuals and military Creoles who came many years fighting for independence revolution: Cornelio Saavedra, Juan José Castelli, Manuel Belgrano, Miguel de Azcuénaga Manuel Alberti, Domingo Matheu, Juan Larrea, Juan José Paso and Mariano Moreno. From this fact, the struggle for independence was an inevitable path that led to the Congress of Tucumán of 9 July 1816.
See complete historical facts http://www.bicentenario.argentina.ar/listado_historia.php
If you didn’t have the chance to be in front of your computer yesterday, we are playing it for you! so you can go over this virtual tasting with Emily, Mariana, and Thierry Rolland’s Collection’s winemaker.
Get these amazing wines in our online store and start tasting right away! cheers!
