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Listen to the Conference Call: “Argentine Wines in the EuropeanMarket”

Friday, August 12th, 2011

 


“Argentine Wine Sales and Trends in the European Market“ conference call was hosted on August 10th, 2011 by Michael Evans and Pablo Giménez Riili from The Vines of Mendoza, along with Eduardo Pulenta of renowned Bodega Pulenta Estate, Mauricio Llaver of Revista Punto a Punto and Andrew Maidment, PR manager for Wines of Argentina in Europe.

From left to right: (bottom) Mauricio Llaver, Eduardo Pulenta | (top) Michael Evans, Pablo Gimenez Riili

Mauricio Llaver is a Mendoza-based journalist specialized in Economics and Wine Industry. He has a 20-years career and has been Fellow of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE). He is bussines-magazine Punto a Punto’s publisher and has radio columns and programs mainly devoted to wine. He also runs his web site
www.mauriciollaver.com and has covered Vinexpo’s last two editions (2009/11).

Eduardo Pulenta is the export manager for Bodega Pulenta Estate. With a winemaking history dating back to 1914,  Eduardo and Hugo Pulenta decided to carry on the family tradition with a focus on high quality wines with passion and dedication and in 2001 founded Pulenta Estate.  They now export around the world and have one of the best reputation and highest quality wines found in Mendoza.

Andrew Maidment runs the European division of Wines of Argentina – the trade body that manages the promotion of Argentine wines in the exports markets. His primary role is to develop marketing strategies for ‘Brand Argentina’ tailored specifically to each country, with the aim of raising the awareness of Argentina’s wines amongst both wine trade professionals and the end consumer.

Activities include: developing large scale ‘on’ and ‘off-trade’ promotions, wine tasting events (trade and consumer), obtaining positive and sustained press presence, advertising, product placement and the organization and planning of trips to Argentina for key individuals or businesses.

Wines of Argentina currently has approximately 250 member wineries.

 







Posted in Experiences, Mendoza Bodegas, Podcasts, Vines Events | No Comments »


2010 The Vines- A Photographic Year in Review

Friday, December 31st, 2010

2010 is rapidly coming to a close and it has been a very busy year for us in Mendoza at The Vines. We have built phase I of our winery, had our first harvest from our first vineyards planted in 2007, created a new high tech blending lab in our downtown Tasting Room, planted more than 125 acres of new vineyards and now have a family of 85 international vineyard owners as well as many friends, family, Wine Club members and employee’s which have made this all possible.

We decided to highlight some of our favorite moments throughout the year, however, there are too many to count and if we included them all it would probably end up being a feature length film!

We are thankful to everyone who has made this possible and invite you all to come and visit us in 2011!

Posted in In the News, Life in Mendoza, Photos, Private Vineyard Estates | No Comments »


The Vines in Worth Magazine

Friday, December 10th, 2010

“We may not make the same decisions, but I can trust that he’s going to make a good one,” Evans says of partner Pablo Gimenez-Riili.”

MICHAEL EVANS AND PABLO GIMENEZ RIILI

WHAT THEY DO:

Co-founders of Vines of Mendoza, a cooperative vineyard in Argentina (vinesofmendoza.com)

HOW THEY TEAMED UP:

After an exhausting stint as a consultant to John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, Evans came to Argentina for a three-week vacation and met Riili through a mutual friend. The two hit it off and spent several days visiting vineyards in the Mendoza, a rugged province in western Argentina. When Evans expressed interest in starting his own small operation, Riili explained that, below a certain amount of acreage, grape growing wasn’t financially feasible. So the two concocted the idea of a co-op in which investors could own fractions of a vineyard, bringing in several of Evans’ friends to purchase the land and start the Vines of Mendoza operation.

Read the complete article here.

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The Vines in Los Andes

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Estamos en un rincón del Valle de Uco (más precisamente en Los Sauces, Tunuyán, sobre ruta 94). Entre viñedos plantados en una extensión tan grande que es posible hacer una panorámica de 360° y tan sólo ver las vides que se encuentran con las montañas, hilando fino vemos el Tupungato. Estamos en Private Vineyard States de The Vines of Mendoza.

Éste es un proyecto de grandes dimensiones que tiene su veta turística, entre otras. Más de 80 inversores del mundo han comprado viñas allí (de entre una y dos ha.) seducidos por el momento del vino argentino y con el deseo de vinificar en esta promisoria tierra. Aficionados, la mayoría de ellos, atesoraban el deseo de producir su propio vino mendocino y en esa empresa devinieron bodegueros.

Hace 4 años que el proyecto dio sus primeros pasos. Cada propietario decidió qué varietales plantar (lo mismo que harán los futuros adquirentes). Si bien son varios, el Malbec es el que manda. Todas las decisiones son tomadas por los dueños y The Vines les presta los servicios que soliciten en la tarea de producir. Así, algunos delegan todo el proceso a los idóneos locales (viniendo una vez cada un par de años) y otros deciden hacerlo personalmente. Tal es el caso de Luis Torres, un financista brasileño que por estos días ha llegado a Mendoza para hacer los cortes de sus vinos.

Leer el artículo completo aquí

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The Vines New Blending Lab- Become a winemaker for the day!

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

BECOME A WINEMAKER FOR THE DAY WITH THE VINES!

The Vines has just finished our new high tech blending lab located in our tasting room in downtown Mendoza! You can become a winemaker for the day with The Vines staff by tasting and blendings wine that were harvested in March 2010 from our Private Vineyard Estates in the Uco Valley. We had special small stainless steel tanks made especially for these wines!

The blending process is one that is critical to the final product and it takes creativity, vision as well as the technical know how to pull it all together. So to offer the ultimate in wine tasting we created the blending lab to help people learn to taste the essences of different varietals and then create a blend that is custom tailored for your tastes. You often don’t realize that just a small percentage of one varietal can greatly influence the entire blend.

Last night we had a blending session with Mariana Onofri, The Vines sommelier, and a couple of our Private Vineyard Estate owners. We tasted through all of the varietals blind, so we had to guess which was Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. This is definitely not as easy as it seems, as these wines are still babies and may not be showing their true expression yet. We all debated and had some surprises but then settled down to play with percentages of the different varietals to make our own special blend!

So we went to work with a partner and after a debate, each came up with a proposed blend from the different varietals. Mariana did her mix-a-lot magic and voila, we then tasted through the new blends (again blind) and had to pick out which one was ours!

Luckily both groups picked their own blends, confirming that we all have our own wine tastes, but which are not all the same! We then bottled up the blend and sent them off to dinner to show off their creation to the rest of the group.

Make sure if you are in Mendoza to make a reservation for this super cool tasting experience. Its really not like anything you have experienced and, please, don’t be intimidated, you don’t need to know anything about wine- but you will leave with a whole new appreciation for what winemakers do everyday!

For reservations contact: events@vinesofmendoza.com

Tasting Room hours: Monday through Saturday 3-10 pm.

Posted in In the News, Life in Mendoza | No Comments »


The Vines in L’Amateur de Cigar

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Following a French theme of the day, The Vines was also recently featured in L’Amateur de cigare. It is a great article and for those of you that can speak French, even better! The Vines is going global, buenisimo!

Posted in In the News | No Comments »


Bodega Decero | New Restaurant

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Bodega Decero has now opened their restaurant for visitors to fully indulge in the Argentine wine experience with spectacular views of the Andes and luxurious food and wine pairings. They have partnered with well known Mendocino chef Matías Podestá to create a seasonal menu that is paired with their wines. You can choose from several different options of entradas, “platos principales” and deserts, to suit your fancy. The choices also appeal to vegetarians and those that are feeling the beef hangover and are craving food from the sea.

To whet your appetite we have provided some of the options and some photos to entice you to come and visit. Make sure that you make a reservation, you wouldn’t want to miss this. Open Monday through Saturday from 12pm-3pm, 3 course lunch paired with wines $180 pesos.

Some of their menu options:

empanadas: chorizo sausage, blood sausage, osobuco
Corn cake with creamy goat cheese and proscuitto
A citrus salmon baked with seeds on a bed of vegetable cous cous
Grilled steak with an assortment of fresh grilled vegetables
Pumpkin sorrentinos with a creamy arugula, almond and sun dried tomato sauce

Wines: Finca Decero Malbec 2008, Finca Decero Syrah 2007, Finca Decero Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

To make a reservation for wine tastings or a decadent lunch, please contact:

Ana Inés Musi Senior Wine Educator

T: +54 261 524 4747 int. 12

anaines.musi@decero.com

Posted in In the News, Mendoza Bodegas, Photos | No Comments »


2010 Owner Harvest Recap

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Here in Mendoza we are in the midst of late fall, the yellow and red colors are resplendent in the streets and vineyards, the light is hazy with golden hues, and there is a brisk freshness to the breeze as you walk down the streets. Fall has flown by, but Cosecha 2010 was a whirlwind of activities and we are now able to look back and see everything that we were able to accomplish in such a short time. We had many of our Private Vineyard Estate owners on hand to harvest and process their wines and we are now carefully watching over them as they go through their first and second fermentations in our new winery. I was chatting with owner Barry Chaiken from Boston, who brought a troupe of friends to experience this almost magical process. Below is a brief recap of what he and his friends were able to experience. So, cheers to all the other Private Vineyard Estate owners that made wine this year- we are looking forward to tasting the final product!

Notes from the 2010 Harvest by Barry Chaiken

What a great trip!! Over a two week period I had 12 of my closest friends travel to Mendoza to share my first harvest at Chaiken Vineyards. In addition to touring the vineyard, we visited the newly built winery, met with the consulting winemakers, and sampled some of the best food in Argentina.

OK, here’s the news on the harvest. Due to a relatively cool summer, harvest was delayed almost two weeks. Although this prevented me from seeing the malbec being picked, it does offer great hope for the wines. Warm days were followed by cool evenings allowing the sugars and acidity to be in balance, which means more interesting and flavorful wines.

On my last visit to the vineyard our winemakers were blind tasting all the grapes from every vineyard determining the right day for picking. Although winemakers use equipment to measure BRIX (sugar levels), nothing is more important than how the grapes taste. Amazingly, each winemaker tastes more than four pounds during one of these sessions. Winemakers grade the grapes A, B, or C with A the highest rating. So how did we do? We got an A!!

Harvest of our malbec began the week of April 5th. Primary fermentation takes place over a two week period for each varietal with the malbec followed by syrah, cabernet franc, and then cabernet sauvignon. I should be getting a report on the how it’s all going real soon. Right now everyone both in Mendoza and here in the U.S. are excited about it all.

Chaiken Vineyards

www.chaikenvineyards.com
info@chaikenvineyards.com
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The Vines last day of 2010 Cosecha

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

It has been a busy fall for us here in Mendoza with the winery, clients, and harvest! Today marks the last day we will be harvesting grapes and we currently have 82 different lots of wines! We have 74 lots are fermenting in stainless steel tanks- we have the ultimate technology in microfermentation! Each owner has their own tank and the cellar staff is busy with hand punch downs, some of the owners have even gotten in on the action, and monitoring the fermentation process. 6 wines have already completed fermentation and are in barrel ready to go through malolactic fermentation. This year we produced Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Syrah. Now I can’t wait for the blending trials!

It has been a monumental year for us and we are happy to share it with both our owners as well as everyone that will be drinking these wines in the future!

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The Vines Team- Cosecha Day 2010

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Every year the entire Vines team heads into the vineyard to harvest grapes that will eventually become wine for guests at The Vines of Mendoza’s tasting room. This year was especially unique because we were able to harvest and process the grapes in our own winery! As many of us work and live in Mendoza city, about an hour from the Uco Valley, and as we are in the midst of high tourist season, we often are not able to visit the finca as much as we would like. I watched as many members of the team entered the winery for the first time and the looks of incredulity were amazing. The bright shiny tanks and fully functioning sorting line and pumps, all gleaming with the smell of wine in the air, captivated the imaginations of what had previously only been a dream, but was now a reality.

Several owners were on hand to experience the process and we all jumped in and helped with the selection process. After several hours of hard work “on the line” we took a break to celebrate with lomos off the parrilla, super thin beef sandwiches (yum) and of course some champagne and fernet branca y coca (national Argentine drink of choice).  It was a momentous day for the entire team, one that culminates a year of hard work and amazing achievements!

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