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!
Malbec is the craze in the US, with good reason, but now the Brazilian market is rapidly gaining ground and looking to the south to provide wines for its booming restaurant and wine scene. In the news, in addition to all of the articles about US consumption, Brazil has become captivated with Malbec and Argentine wines. For example, just in the last week these articles have profiled the significant increase in exports as well as dollar value which can be attributed to several different trends including a strong real, an increasing middle class, and attention to lifestyle pursuits.
An article in Bloomberg.com notes that the rise in the Brazilian real is making the purchasing power easier for Brazilians to stock up on top Argentine wines. They also mention that the increase in popularity is due to a combination of economic factors, the quality to price ratio, Malbec led growth, and lifestyle choices.
“Exports to South America’s most-populous country rose 49 percent in the first five months of this year from a year earlier to a record $15.8 million, according to a July report from Caucasia Wine Thinking, a research company based in Mendoza, the center of Argentina’s wine region. Sales to the U.S., the biggest importer, rose 19 percent to $97 million over the same period.”
They also mention The Vines of Mendoza as a way to procure their own wine.
At Vines of Mendoza, a company that sells and manages vineyards for private buyers in the Uco Valley, staff are studying Portuguese, Brazil’s official language, after the number of Brazilians visiting its two tasting rooms rose three- fold from 2008, company president Michael Evans said. Five of the company’s 79 landowners are from Brazil, up from one a year ago, he said.
“It’s become our second most important market in just the last year,” Evans said via e-mail. “We are seeing a huge influx of Brazilians.”
Behind the US and Canada, Brazil is rapidly consuming and importing more and more Argentine wines.
An Article in Wine Sur states: ” As regards Brazil, the third market in importance, exports have increased 49.1% in value and 23.5% in volume.
Another article in Wine Sur notes that the trend “is closely related to the fact that “Brazilian consumers are becoming more sophisticated and enjoy pairing their food with good wines. They look for greater complexity, always appreciating the fruit.”
The newspaper Jornal Valor of Sao Paulo featured The Vines of Mendoza’s Private Vineyard Estates yesterday appealing to wine enthusiasts, businessmen and investors. There is an increasing focus on the Argentine market for imports, investment, and lifestyle adventures. More and more wine enthusiasts are also hoping to make their vineyard dreams come to fruition. We have amongst our international set of owners, many Brazilians who visit frequently to check on their vineyards and wines. Over the last year we have seen increased interest from this market segment as owners would also like to increase the quality of Argentine Wines that are available in the Brazilian market.
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)
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
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.
Both the US and Argentina were reveling in Independence festivities last week. Here in Argentina we had a long weekend with our Independence Day on Friday July 9th, 2010.
Coutesy of Wikipedia here is a bit of history on Argentina’s Independence day as well as some wines from The Vines to celebrate!
The Independence of Argentina was declared on July 9, 1816 by the Congress of Tucumán. Actually, Argentina was not a country yet; the congressmen joined in Tucuman declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America (still today one of the legal names of the Argentine Republic). The three Litoral provinces (Santa Fé, Entre Ríos and Corrientes) were expelled from the Congress, along with Banda Oriental, present-day Uruguay. At the same time, several provinces from the Alto Perú were represented that would later become part of present-day Bolivia.
The May Revolution of 1810 followed the deposition of the Spanish king Fernando VII by Napoleon. The revolution terminated the authority of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and replaced it with the Primera Junta.
When the king returned in 1814, Spain was determined to recover control over its colonies in the Americas. The royalists were victorious at the battles of Sipe-Sipe, Huaqui, Vilcapugio and Ayohuma, in what had been the Viceroyalty of Peru. From there they planned to attack the bases of José de San Martín, and to make their way to Buenos Aires.
On April 15, 1815, a revolution ended the mandate of Carlos María de Alvear and demanded that a General Congress be summoned. Delegate deputies, each representing 15,000 inhabitants, were sent from all the provinces to the sessions, which started on March 24, 1816. However, several territories that had until then belonged to the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata did not send delegates: the Banda Oriental (“Eastern Bank”, today Uruguay), which was faithful to José Gervasio Artigas; Paraguay, which had already proclaimed its independence; and the Gran Chaco, still fighting against Native resistance.
The Congress was inaugurated in the city of Tucumán, with 33 deputies. The presidency of the Congress would be rotated monthly. Because the Congress had the freedom to choose topics to debate, endless discussions ensued.
The voting finally ended on July 9 with a declaration of independence. The Declaration pointed to the circumstances in Europe of the past six years—the removal of the King of Spain by the Napoleon and the subsequent refusal of Ferdinand VII to accept constitutional rule both in the Peninsula and overseas. The Document claimed that Spanish America recovered its sovereignty from the Crown of Castile in 1808, when Ferdinand VII had been deposed, and therefore, any union between the overseas dominions of Spain and the Peninsula had been dissolved. This was a legal concept that was also invoked by the other Spanish American declarations of independence, such as Venezuela’s (1811) and Mexico’s (1813), which were responding to the same events. The president of the Congress at the time was Francisco Narciso de Laprida, delegate from San Juan Province. Subsequent discussions centered on what form of government the emerging state should adopt.
The congress continued its work in Buenos Aires in 1817, but it dissolved in 1820 after the Battle of Cepeda, which deepened the differences between the Unitarian Party, who favored a strong central government, and the Federales Argentina, who favored a weak central government.
Argentina proved its mettle on the playing field in South Africa against the worthy Mexican team vying for a spot to compete in the quarter finals. Next up is an epic battle with the strong German team this Saturday. Mendoza is full of energy and action with world cup tee shirts and jerseys resplendent in the streets! (photo by worldcontributor.com)
Off the field Argentina is also dominating in the world of wine. In an article from Wines of Argentina, Argentine wines are still the fastest growing import in the US with dollar sales up 31.3% and volumes up 27.5%. Three Argentine wines also earned a spot of the coveted Wine & Spirits “50 Value Brands of the Year” further solidifying Argentina’s position in the international market as the go-to wine with high quality and value. The three listed were all under $20 and included Basso, Cruz Alta, and Trivento.
And while Malbec is certainly the darling of Argentina’s wine portfolio, the future is bright with the arrival of new and exciting varietals, research and development and new technologies. In a recent interview from Wine Sur with long-time winemaker Aldo Luis Biondolillo from Bodega Tempus Alba, his take is “differentiation is key.” He feels that winemaking has been “one of the few agroindustrial activities that keeps growing steadily in the export market, both in terms of production and commercialization.” Particularly interesting are the associations that are in place to help foster winery development as well as research for clonal identification and propagation.
” Our winery relies on strategic alliances with Mendoza’s fund for transformation and growth (FTyC, Fondo para la Transformación y el Crecimiento), ProMendoza and the Argentinian fund for technology transfer (FONTAR, Fondo Tecnológico Argentino). The funds granted by the FTyC helped us protect our vineyards by means of anti-hail nets, and last year, it also allowed us to expand the capacity of our vats at the winery. ProMendoza guided us along our process of commercial development. And FONTAR helped us by means of their non-refundable funds program, which we’re using to finance the evaluation of ten years of work devoted to the identification, selection and multiplication of Malbec clones. We’re already producing our own clones. Our future vineyards will be developed using material selected from the centennial genetic pool of Argentina’s commercial viticulture. Today we can offer our importers wines produced from grapes selected by ourselves. Though this is a costly and time-consuming task, it will help us pave the way towards differentiation.”
Argentina, despite all of its recent popularity, is still a wine region that has yet to really hit its stride. Since I have been here over the last 4 years, the number of Cabernet Sauvignon’s that I have tasted and actually liked have increased dramatically. Granted I have a bit of a California palate, but I believe with the influence of foreign winemakers and techniques, understanding, farming, and producing Cabernet has increased in quality and consistency over the last 5 years. The future holds the same true for new varietals. I am excited to see how transplanted varietals, such as Rhone selections like Marsanne, Rousanne, and particularly Syrah have in store!
The future is shining brightly for Argentina both on and off the field!
Apparently, according to a recent article, the Vatican drinks more wine per capita per person than any other country, (granted it is one of the smallest countries at around 44 hectares, 1/10 of our Private Vineyard Estates, and just over 800 people , but still…) The Wine Institute of the United States did a little research and it seems that small enclosed either islands or countires are the largest per capita consumers, aka wine boozers. The Vatican tops the list at 66.67 liters per capita, wow!Argentina doesn’t even stand a chance at 27 liters.
Alder Yarrow, from Vinography.com also did a post on interesting wine consumptions statistics. Here are a few tidbits but click here for the full article. The US doesn’t even make it on the first page- so come on- team spirit, be a good catholic and drink some more wine! I promise you might like your life better!
There are more than twenty countries in the world who register effectively zero wine consumption per-capita per year, including North Korea (personally I could never fathom living without wine)
More mainstream tropical paradises saw huge gains in wine consumption per capita over the four years, with the Antilles, St. Kitts, Turks and Caicos, and St. Vincent all posting 100% or greater gains. (tourist season in full swing?)
The country with the greatest jump in wine consumption per capita between 2004 and 2008 was Nigeria, with a jump of 1236.2% to .33 liters consumed on average.- strange…
So, perfect reading for a Saturday night go pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy! Get ready for tomorrow’s big game Argentina vs. Mexico. GOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL.
in 2007 when the Uco Valley was just a wild west wilderness of land beneath the towering Andes, Matt and Amy Kot along with their parents Phil and Nancy Hove fell in love and saw the potential of what was to come. They jumped right into the wine business even with full time jobs in Los Angeles, promoting not only the Uco Valley and Malbec but the, as yet, mostly unknown grape Torrontes.
Their hard work has paid off – their wine label Solsticio recently won very prestigious silver medals for their Malbec and Torrontes at the Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competiton. Just in time for the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern!
The entire family came down in March to harvest grapes from their Private Vineyard Estate, three generations experiencing their first grape harvest. We look forward to seeing the evolution of their wines in barrel and which should be in the market soon! For more information about their wines or where you can find them, check out their website www.solsticio.com.
Congratulations to some of our founding Private Vineyard Estate owners whose vision has made their winemaking dream come true!
Todos los miércoles y sábados | 7 a 9pm
Jueves 3 de Junio | 9 a 11pm | $45
Maridaje con vinos de Bodega Sur de Los Andes .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
We are always interested by new and interesting wine pairings and when a local sommelier invited several of The Vines team to attend a Cigar (puros in spanish) and sweet wine tasting we couldn’t resist. Given that I am not a smoker, not recreationally, not even the “just-when-I-am slightly-inebriated” kind of smoker, I was a bit fearful – but it seemed safe since my cohorts told me we were not to inhale.
We started off with an interesting lecture about the history, the “must- have” accessories, as well as what the proper techniques are for smoking a cigar. After trying, ineptly, to handle the cigar cutters, we all had the perfect flat edge for which to light our cigars. (No, no one EVER bites off the end and spits it out apparently) For purists you should light a cedar stick, which will not impart synthetic aromas into the cigar. Then the idea, some of us were more successful than others, was to evenly light the cigar in a circle, creating an even ring of ash. If you were unsuccessful, you could cheat and use one of the lighters you see in romantic 30′s films, where Humphrey Bogart effortlessly with a flick of his wrist lights a cigarette with a debonair flair. Ok I digress.
We learned that if a cigar from Cuba has a plastic wrapping, it is machine made rather than hand rolled and that first and most important decision for choosing a cigar is how long you have to smoke it. There are also many correlations that can be made between cigars and fine wines. Just like wines there are several fermentation processes and there is a rating system that is applied to denote the quality with 4 fermentations being the ultimate or ultra premium. The cigars and leaves also need to be carefully handled, always maintaining the proper humidity to ensure the essential oils of the tobacco leaves are preserved.
Wikipedia states: Once rolled, the cigars are stored in wooden forms as they dry, in which their uncapped ends are cut to a uniform size. From this stage, the cigar is a complete product that can be “laid down” and aged for decades if kept as close to 21°C (70°F), and 70% relative humidity, as the environment will allow. Once cigars have been purchased, proper storage is usually accomplished by keeping the cigars in a specialized wooden box, or humidor, where conditions can be carefully controlled for long periods of time.
There are many different shapes, grades, and manufacturers of cigars and each, like wine, imparts different flavors and aromas. The cigars that we smoked were from the Dominican Republic, rolled by hand and were spicy at the beginning but mild and a bit seductive in the mouth. We paired it with a port style wine “Oportuno” made by Bodega Domaine St. Diego and longtime winemaker Angel Mendoza. The pairing was perfect accenting the delicate layers of tobacco and leather in the wine, highlighting the black fruit and smoothing the acidity so that it coated the mouth evenly and softly. To be honest, we were all a bit surprised by the lovely integration of aromas and flavors that took place. We then tried another late harvest wine, unlabeled, brought by the winery, which was not as complementary as the Oportuno, so there is an art to creating the perfect pairing just like with food.
So now when you look at all the beauties lying in your perfect cigar humidor, think about what the wine pairing should be as well, it will add a new dimension to your smoking pleasure.
