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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 »


The Vines Wine Barrel Tasting Outdoors!

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

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.

Posted in Behind the bottle, Private Vineyard Estates | 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 »


The Vines in Vanity Fair- oh la la!!

Friday, July 16th, 2010

It has been a very busy week here at The Vines! First our wine naming competition, then more snow than I have seen in Mendoza in the 4 years (check out the pictures on our facebook page) that I have been here and now the cherry on top- The Vines is in Vanity Fair, a staff favorite magazine whenever we can get contraband copies from the US!

So run to the store, its summer and good for you, and pick up a copy to peruse poolside with a lovely glass of Torrontes over the weekend!

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


Argentina’s Independence Day

Monday, July 12th, 2010

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.

Posted in Life in Mendoza, Videos | 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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Cigars and Wine- a perfect pairing?

Friday, May 7th, 2010

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.

Posted in Experiences, Life in Mendoza | No Comments »


Malbec hits the New York Times

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Esteemed journalist Eric Asimov is the hallowed wine expert at the New York Times and even he has come around to Malbec. In a recent article he says that “Argentina opens the tap for Malbec” (click for the full article)

They tasted 25 Malbecs under $50 and the verdict is that there is no greater value in the market with the same fruit flavors and consistency as Malbec.

Here are a few of the highlights:

“It’s the right sort of wine at the right kind of price.”

Argentina is pumping out a river of malbec, and it has been flying off the shelves at an astounding rate. Since 2005, shipments of Argentine malbec to the United States have quintupled, to nearly 3.15 million cases in 2009 from about 628,000 cases in 2005, according to figures from Wines of Argentina, a trade group.

“As the outdoor cooking season gets under way in earnest, with its plethora of grilled and roasted meats, malbecs would make fine choices. I tend to think of them the way I did of zinfandels, before so many zinfandels became top-heavy with alcohol. They are likable and powerful enough in their own right. And if you served them slightly cool, as Florence suggested, well, then you have a fine summer party wine.”

So there you have it- The NYT just told you to go out and throw a party!

Posted in In the News | No Comments »


New Bus Tour to Uco Valley Wineries

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Amongst the tourists that I have encountered in the The Vines Tasting Room, it is amazing how seemingly a lot of people like to “bike and wine”- personally I would just stay at the first winery, ditch the bike, keep drinking and have someone pick me up. “Biking and wining” also tends to keep you confined to Maipu where the wineries are conveniently located fairly close together and there are some various lunch options available.

If I were to bike and wine- which I probably never will- I would hit the Uco Valley. The landscapes are stunning, the air is pure and the culture is 100% campo- or rural Argentina. However it is a bit difficult to get to and the wineries are fairly distant from each other which effectively ruling out the easy “bikes and wines.”

HOWEVER now there is another option other than renting a car or getting a remis for the day- which tends to be a bit too expensive for the average backpacker and tourist on their own. Andesmar has worked with several bodegas in the Uco Valley to create a day trip to sample several wineries at a very amenable price.

The Bus Vitivinicola (super fun word to say- may take some practice for gringos) is still in its infancy and currently offers tours on Fridays for $100 pesos for the day and you can purchase your tickets online. They will be expanding their services to Tuesdays and Saturdays for South Uco Valley and Fridays and Sundays for the Northern Uco Valley. You can visit the bodegas Atamisque, Andeluna, Salentein, O’Fournier and La Celia.

So now you have another option for touring the Uco Valley on your next visit to Mendoza!

Here are a couple of links to videos in spanish in you can’t wait for the real deal and want to take a turn virtually.

http://www.malbectv.com/video.php?id=188

http://www.malbectv.com/video.php?id=187

Posted in Experiences, Mendoza Bodegas | No Comments »


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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