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June 08, 2010
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OUR INAUGURAL 84 WINES
While the temperature falls here in Mendoza, the vines are changing colors and losing their leaves as they head towards dormancy. And the 84 unique wines we are making with our Private Vineyard Estate owners this year are now safely in barrel.
The weather conditions for the 2010 harvest were outstanding, giving us excellent sugar and phenolic ripeness in our grapes. Actually across Mendoza we were blessed with an outstanding harvest (http://www.winesur.com/top-news/outstanding-quality-in-the-2010-vintage).We picked 10 varietals, starting with the Sauvignon Blanc on February 22 and finished with the Tempranillo on April 24 (it is kind of ironic that we picked Tempranillo last, as it’s name means early).
Each Private Vineyard Estate owner completed a series of tastings over the last year to determine the desired style and character of wine, which range from fresh and fruit-forward to classic and elegant and finally, powerful and intense. These parameters served as our guidelines for harvest dates and winemaking decisions.
After early morning harvests, we took the grapes in small plastic bins to the winery and performed both a cluster and berry sort – to remove leaves, twigs, bugs, unripe and damaged fruit, and bits of stems that could add undesirable flavors.
After sorting, we filled one-ton stainless-steel tanks (all fruit goes from each owner’s vineyard to their tank to their barrels) and did a saigné (bleeding) to remove some of the juice to concentrate the must during the maceration.
Once in the tank, we did a cold soak (pre-fermentative maceration) for 5-8 days to enhance primary aromas and color through increased extraction. We inoculated with selected yeasts and managed the wine cap in order to obtain the expression of extraction, fruit tannins and concentration for each owner’s desired style of wine. In many cases, we also performed an extended post-fermentative maceration to increase the structure and concentration in the wine, primarily for powerful and intense styles. The entire primary fermentation process took between 25 and 30 days process.
As soon as the alcoholic fermentation was complete and the wine was dry (without sugar), we pressed the wine using a small hydraulic press, enabling a gentle extraction from skin and seeds and placed the wines in new oak barrels (primarily French oak from Boutes and Seguin Moreau). Most of the wines are currently going through malolactic fermentation, which will finish in the next 20-25 days. The premium (U$20 retail) wines will be ready for bottling in December 2010 and the super premium (U$50+ retail) wines will be bottled in May, 2011 after 12 months in barrel.
• Tasting notes – Los Guapos Super Premium Malbec
While we have 84 different wines, we thought it might be interesting to share the tasting notes for one of our Super Premium Malbecs. This Private Vineyard Estate owner has a chain of restaurants where this Los Guapos Malbec will be featured next year.
Tasting wine at this stage is challenging, yet interesting and exciting. We can identify the basic expression of the wine and get a sense of its’ potential. At this stage of development, tannin and acidity are very prominent, serving as the backbone of the wine, though they are not yet fully-integrated into the wine. The acidity is a good indication that this wine has significant aging potential.
The color is a very intense, deep ruby red with blackish hues. It is showing an expressive nose full of ripe red and black fruit and plum -- the typical aroma for Malbec. In the mouth it is full-bodied, with solid tannins that will need time in barrel to mellow. This wine has a nice balanced fruit flavor with slight spices in the end.
We will be tasting all of our wines monthly as they evolve to monitor their development. Finally, in March or April we will bottle the wines, add a label for each owner and ship them off to their homes.
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2010 PRIVATE VINEYARD ESTATE PLANTING FOR 25 NEW OWNERS
Starting in September, we will plant vines for our 25 new Private Vineyard Estate Owners. These vines will cover 120 acres, bringing the total acreage planted to 450 acres – and nearly 1 million plants! The land has been cleared and leveled and the plants ordered from nurseries in Italy and Argentina. We are building the trellis and irrigation system over the next couple months and then will welcome our new owners to join us for planting in September and October. Malbec continues to lead the varietals selected though several of our new owners have chosen to plant Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Petit Verdot after tasting several excellent recently released wines featuring these varietals.
Inquiries: Michael Evans michael@vinesofmendoza.com
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THE INN AT THE VINES OF MENDOZA
We are thrilled to announce the development of The Inn at the Vines of Mendoza. This resort will be located on 17 acres amidst the Private Vineyard Estates and we plan to open this wine destination in 2011. We are excited to once again be working with Bormida-Yanzon (www.bormidayanzon.com.ar) on the architecture.
In the coming months we will share our revised drawings and photos of the construction (and begin taking reservations for the 2011-2012 season!).
That's the latest news from Mendoza. We hope that you will come visit soon and share some great Malbec and an asado.
Michael Evans & Pablo Gimenez Riili
Co-Founders
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The Vines of Mendoza | Sales Office: Espejo 567 Mendoza, Argentina | US phone 707-320-2699 | Local phone: (54-261) 438-1031 ext. 267
privatevineyards [at] vinesofmendoza.com | www.vinesofmendoza.com
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