“Argentine Wine Sales and Trends in the US Market“ conference call was hosted on February 16th, 2011 by Michael Evans, CEO of The Vines of Mendoza. The 4 panelists were Sharon Sevrens, Nick Ramkowsky, Pablo Gimenez Riili and Santiago Achával.
> Listen to the conference call here.
The Uco Valley is fast becoming the “IT” place for the best wineries to be in Argentina. If you don’t have a winery located in the Uco Valley, most wineries at least source grapes or have single named vineyards that they own located in this high altitude and stunning valley at the base of the Andes. Amongst the notable names are Andeluna, Salentein, O.Fournier, Monteviejo, Catena’s Adriana Vineyard, Achaval Ferrer’s Altamira vineyard and now the newcomer Bodega Diamandes. The star power alone amonst these wineries is impressive.
Located in the Clos de los Siete group- basically across the street, so to speak, from The Vines Private Vineyard Estates, we are excited to see such an interesting combination of architectural innovation combined with classic winemaking methods. In 2005, the Bonnie, proprietors of Château Malartic-Lagravière (Grand Cru Classé de Graves) and Château Gazin Rocquencourt (Pessac- Léognan) decided to broaden their horizons and seek new adventures. They now have 130 hectáreas and they had their first harvest in 2007.
The winery was designed by prestigious local architects Bormida and Yanzon and recently won best winery architecture for the contest “Best of Wine Tourism in 2011″ organized by Great Wine Capitals.
Their wines are definitely ones to watch for- rich, complex, elegantly crafted AND they have already sold out of their first vintage! They have it all- stunning landscapes, amazing wines, beautiful architecture. Make sure you include this beautiful winery on your next trip to Mendoza and the Uco Valley!
Contact: visitas@diamandes.com
Visiting hours: 9am-6pm only by reservation
Languages: español, inglés y francés.
Bodega DiamAndes
C/Silva s/n 5565 – Vista Flores
Tunuyán – Mendoza – Argentina
Tel / Fax + 54 261 47 65 400
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!
The Uco Valley is a stunning place, one to be remembered not only for the staggering Andes mountains and beautiful vineyards, but also for the people and the Argentine culture. Because the people who make up The Vines is such an integral part of who we are, we have teamed up with the elementary school in Vista Flores, Islas Malvinas, to help support the efforts of the local workers and their families. Together we can create this area into one of the most respected world class wine regions.
For the holidays we decided to call upon the creativity of children, which is usually the most impressive, to create our annual holiday card. We provided supplies for 75 students to create their impressions of what is significant in the Uco Valley and what it means to them. We were overwhelmed by the images and had an especially difficult time trying to pick the top four!
After a lengthy process and many different opinions we were happy to announce the winners. First place went to Cristian, a fifth grader who won a new bicycle!
, Second place and an art kit went to 7th grader, Lila for her beautiful rendition of the waterways, green vineyards and mountains. Special mentions went to Ale and Veronica who received gift certificates to a local sporting shop for their unique and beautiful drawings!
We would like to thank everyone who helped organize this special concurso, especially the students, Univita and the school!
FELICES FIESTAS A TODOS | HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
*to see more pictures check out The Vines facebook page here.
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.
THE sunlight sliced through the clear glass of the gazebo-like restaurant at Familia Zuccardi, one of dozens of wineries located in the small town of Maipú, just outside the city of Mendoza, Argentina. The purple-red malbec and torrontés grapevines glistened in the early afternoon sun. Inside, a waitress poured us chardonnay as bread sticks and an appetizer of ham ravioli arrived. She brought a different chardonnay for the cannelloni filled with sweetbread. Then a hearty malbec, Argentina’s signature wine, accompanied the main course of baby goat rolls filled with sun-dried tomatoes and aubergine.
For the apple with cardamom soup, oak ice cream and goat cheese — the “pre-dessert” on this tasting menu — a sweet white wine cleared the palate. Then one more malbec appeared for the dessert of yerba mate foam with grapefruit and orange caviar.
After getting up from the table, more than a little lightheaded, we passed through a courtyard where visitors had put their feet up and were sipping tea while reading books amid the chirping birds and warm sun peeking through the trees. No one seemed in any rush to leave.
Such is winery-hopping in Mendoza — Latin America’s largest winemaking region. Situated some 600 miles west of Buenos Aires, the province is home to more than 800 wineries, about 100 of which actively receive tourists. And as Argentine wine exports continue to grow by 25 percent a year, this 57,000-square-mile area is drawing not only more tourists, but also vintners, who see in Mendoza the same charm and potential that propelled more established wine regions decades ago.
“Mendoza is Napa 30 or 40 years ago,” said Michael Evans, a former Democratic campaign strategist from Washington, D.C., who moved to Mendoza six years ago to go into the wine business.
(more…)
The holiday season is hectic and crazy with friends and relatives you may or may not want to see, but we all should get in the holiday spirit!
The Vines is here to help you get through the holidays with the perfect gift for anyone — everyone loves Malbec, right?
And you can add a couple of bottles to the shipment just to help you through those family events.
We are offering FREE SHIPPING on all wines for orders above $200 through December 31st.
Make sure you take note of the deadlines for shipment and POOF! your holiday shopping will be complete in one fell swoop.
Just enter promo code freeshipping when checking out.
If you need some help choosing the wine, our “wine concierge” is available to help you with any of your shopping needs.
Just email noelia@vinesofmendoza.com with any of your questions.
Felices Fiestas!
**Promotion valid for shipments within the US only. To ship gifts to multiple addresses please contact us so that we can place your order for you manually. Not all wines are available for shipping to all states. Customers in Canada and Europe: As our online store does not allow us to process orders outside of the United States, please submit your order to us via email. Please note that additional duties will be charged upon delivery of the wine.
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.
Since my arrival in Napa, I have been visiting the various vineyards of Robert Mondavi winery (RMW), which is located in Oakville in the Napa Valley. From Calistoga in the north to Carneros in the south I have been checking on the health of the vines as well as the evolution of the grapes by analysis and sensory tasting to determine the best time to harvest for each of the varietals. My work is primarily concentrated on the red varietals like Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabermet Franc, Petit Verdot and of course, Cabernet Sauvignon. While the cosecha is being continuing in the vineyards, the fermentation is started, together with the winemaking team (Gustavo Gonzalez, enologist, and Genevieve Janssens, coordinator of enology for RMW) with daily tastings of all the tanks to ensure the quality of the final product. This part of the process is particularly interesting for me and gives me the opportunity to experience how to make wine from different climates and terrors, and with the wine that is obtained, I am able to learn from the winemaking experience of Gustavo and Genevieve.
But my life here is not only work! I love wine so on the weekends I have been visiting different wineries in Napa obviously tasting wines! This has been a great experience professionally and culturally! Saludos with a Cabernet from Oakville!
EN ESPANOL
Desde mi llegada he estado realizando visitas a los viñedos de Robert Mondavi Winery, ubicados en Napa Valley, desde Calistoga hasta Carneros, cuidando la sanidad de los mismos y posteriormente realizando un seguimiento de la evolucion de la madurez por medio de analisis quimicos y sensoriales, para determinar el mejor momento de cosecha de cada una de las variedades. Mayormente mi trabajo se centro en uvas tintas como pinot noir, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot y por supuesto, cabernet sauvignon. A medida que la cosecha va avanzando y el proceso de fermentacion se inicia, junto con el winemaking team (Gustavo Gonzalez, enologo de RMW y asesor de Krassia May, y Genevieve Janssens, coordinadora de enologia de RMW) realizamos degustaciones a diario de todos los tanques para asegurar la calidad del producto final. Esta etapa en particular significa una gran experiencia profesional pues puedo vincular una viticultura en climas y terroir diferentes, con el vino obtenido, aprendiendo a su vez de la experiencia de profesionales de la talla de Gustavo y Genevieve.
Pero no solo la vida es trabajo! me encanta el vino, asique los fines de semana, hacia tours por las bodegas mas reconocidas de napa, y obviamente degustaciones!to
Ha sido una gran experiencia laboral y cultural! Ya vamos a brindar con un cab sauvignon de Oakvillle!
KILLER MALBECS- LAST DAY TODAY
The Vines 31 Killer Malbecs are available at 25% off today only, September 30th.
Be sure to check the lineup for some interesting suspects:
Doña Silvina Malbec 2006 (High falutin’ business type)
Mil Vientos Malbec 2007 (Immigrant from San Juan type)
Nomade Malbec Reserva 2004 (Rough yet enigmatic Gaucho type)
Proemio Malbec Reserva 2003 (Middle class charmer type)
Maia Malbec 2006 (The organic hippe type)
There are also 26 other Malbecs to choose from as well- make sure you capture them by TOMORROW!
If you want help or background checks just contact us at
customerservice@vinesofmendoza.com
**To ship gifts to multiple addresses please be sure to contact us so that we can place your order for you manually. Not all wines are available for shipping to all states. Customers in Canada and Europe: As our online store does not allow us to process orders outside of the United States, please submit your order to us via email. Please note that additional duties will be charged upon delivery of the wine.