A big head is not a pretty thing to have, metaphorically speaking. People who posses an inflated sense of self worth and importance are repulsive to us all, but every now and then the stars will align in such a way as to give you a day of totally undeserved ego stroking and/or special treatment. In the case of me and Graham our heads nearly exploded over the latter and it couldn't have been helped.
It's always about who you know, and fortunately for us when we went to Mendoza (the center of Argentine wine making) Graham's cousin was all in the know and very generously set us up with a tour of a selection of wineries he does work with.
Firstly, I must preface this blow-by-blow account by mentioning that we were picked up by a chauffeur who we inadvertently kept waiting in the lobby for a half hour through a misunderstanding, consequently arriving at our first destination 1 hour late. When he told us when we were supposed to come down and meet him, and that we were now significantly behind schedule, I felt so guilty, almost remorseful for inconveniencing this man and the people who were expecting us, I almost suggested that we call them to apologize in advance. This was when Raul said "Don't worry about it, they can wait *chuckle*". I straightened up in my seat and began to get an idea of what we were getting into.
Our first tasting was at the Dominio Del Plata winery, headed up by an odd couple of sorts. Susanna is the meticulous, French-inspired winemaker preferring sophisticated and complex wines made in the barrel (toasted head, 195, French Oak) while Pedro is the back to basics, 'flavour of the grape born in the vineyards' type. Although they are utter opposites in the world of wine and at times (according to rumour) have to battle it out in epic arguments, they set their differences aside to collaborate on their entry level line of wines, Crios, to the drinkers' benefit. Their real creative outlets are in their respective boutique wines, Ben Marco and Susanna Balba, with which they whole-heartily embrace the things that set them apart from each other, not only exhibiting them in the bottle, but on the bottle as well. The Ben Marco line of bottles all have labels that depict some aspect or element of the vineyards (see below) while the Susanna Balba labels are more stylized in the French tradition, with elegant cursive writing and minimal depictions. Charmingly they've collaborated on another line of boutique wines named "Nosotros" ("Ours") and have cleverly created a logo that at first glance looks like child's pencil drawing of lines and squiggles that reveals upon closer inspection to depict the leaves and grapes of the vines slowly morphing into barrels, tables, decanters and wine glasses. Taking from the best of each of their own vintages they mix them up in different quantities until equilibrium is reached through a delicate balance of taste and complexity. However, call me unsophisticated, but my favourite was the Torrentes from their entry level wine, Crios.
Our second destination was the Mendel winery, with a staff of 15, about the same amount of fermenting tanks and a penchant for preserving tradition I knew we were in for a treat. Not to mention that the big give away was that the winery is in part owned by the LVMH group. Anyway, the tour of the facilities didn't take long as they encompass only a few buildings, the main one being the original structure built by Italians in 1918 that houses the fermenting tanks; massive, shiny steel tanks which contain thousands of litres each. In fact, even the vines are old, about 80 years, and were purchased when the group came in in 2004. Their love affair with the old manifests itself in the way they shun modern technologies. They employ three women to stand at a vibrating conveyor belt and pick out by hand the leaves, bugs and other debris from the grapes before they are lightly pressed. Then once the grapes are into the tanks the body of the grape eventually slips out of its skin and sinks, leaving a thick cake of skins at the top that needs to be broken up, mixed and pushed down four times a day by hand. After pointing out how labour-intensive this system is our guide explained that the quality of the wine is directly related to the amount of job satisfaction that the people who work there have, and that in order to put up with such hard manual labour they must all love their jobs very much. Either that or they haven't got any better options. The only things new on the entire estate are the French oak barrels that are used only once and then sold to surrounding wineries, but at 800 Euros per barrel plus shipping it's an expensive necessity in their eyes.
At the moment Mendel as two wines out, the Mendel Malbec and Unus which is 30% Cabernet and 70% Malbec. Although the Unus is characterized by 'softer' tannins and a 'full mouth' I really couldn't have told you any significant difference between the two because at 14% alcohol or more and the fact that I deplore spitting I was getting quite drunk and was too busy trying to hide it.
Being faced with a morning buzz and an early onset headache made it a welcome relief to escape the tasting table for a lunch table. Feeling rather pleased with ourselves we settled in for a swank lunch and guzzled as much water as possible. And then the second big ego-stroke hit when another older, American couple walked in, banker looking people from New York City. By speaking loudly I couldn't have not eavesdropped even if I wanted but I'm glad I did because sometimes an inane conversation between people who don't know you're listening is all you need to be happy that you're you and not them. With righteous indignation we balked at the way the man ordered his meal: "Bring us the grilled squid, but bring out the beers first. Then you can bring the salad out with my main and she'll eat at the same time." What a jerk! we thought and then complimented each other on being far more well behaved and gentile than them. Who exactly do they think they are?
Anyway, the coup de grace culminated in our final visit at the Catena winery. All day long everyone we talked to didn't lose an opportunity to slag it off, "it's too big and impersonal", "they push you out the door too fast", "not very interesting". And it is all these things. Catena Zapata produced the first Argentine wine to be taken seriously, Robert Parker has consistently graded many of their wines at 90 points and above and with over 80 countries to export to they have to produce almost mind-boggling quantities of wine. Like the winery itself the tour has become very efficient, cranking out as many walk-throughs as possible which doesn't really allow for an in depth or personal experience. You're first shuffled down the stairs and sit in a small auditorium where you're shown a brief video about the history of the Catena winery and family and their unique/ridiculous building:
*image via http://www.catenawines.com.ar/
Next you're shown the fermenting room, artfully lit and designed to impress, however it comes off as a little tomb-like. Then you're shown the tasting room that looks onto the fermenting room where special tastings are held for journalists, critics and people of distinction. After that you're shuffled up the stairs to the second floor to look out the windows and admire the doors of the President's office. Then you go up yet another flight of stairs to the roof/observation deck where the guide takes this opportunity to tell you the reasoning behind this ridiculous structure. Signore Catena wanted to establish a reputation for Argentine wine based on the native qualities of the land, climate and soil so he built a Mayan looking structure to highlight those unique and indigenous characteristics... even though the indigenous indians in this area were the Incas whose characteristic architecture did not resemble the Mayan. I can't help but feel that he did that on purpose to pander to a wider, Northern audience who would find his building and message 'quaint' and 'charming'.
Finally the charade of a tour was over and we followed our guide downstairs to start the tasting in the front lobby. She showed us a big bureau full of the different lines of wines, on the left only wines sold in Argentina and on the right wines only sold abroad. She mentioned they were all for sale in house and before I knew it a glass of wine was stuck in my hand for tasting. I don't remember anything about it because the next second the guide was saying that Celeste Pesce, the assistant winemaker and export manager would like to invite us down stairs for a private tasting with her. "Oh, how nice" I said with as much nonchalance as possible because I didn't want her to see that I was surprised by this. We put our glasses down on the bar and as we followed behind the guide I made sure to sneak a peak at that the rest of our group to see if they noticed that we were leaving them for bigger and better things.
And such better things! We tasted wines from Luca and Tikal, the respective lines by the daughter and son of Nicolas Catena. This turned out to be by far the most interesting tasting yet, we were provided with information on all the wines from the viticulture to the amount fermenting days and discovered that there seems to be only two types of people in wine making. Like Ben Marco and Susanna Balba, Laura is the scientific, precise, complex winemaker whereas her brother is the artist, making wine that's based in the grape. I tend to prefer simple wines without too many layers and complexities but in this instance I found myself overwhelmingly preferring the Luca wines. Is it possible that my tastes had matured so quickly in the course of the day that I now drank only sophisticated and complicated wines? I pondered this as I took a sip and tried to slurp like a serious wine drinker to introduce air into the mouth and enhance the flavours, but I quickly realized that if I tried to do that wine would surely escape down my chin in a steady stream and end up in a puddle on my lap. So no, I was not some kind of novice sommelier, I like what I like without rhyme or reason and I like being spoiled every now and then even though I totally don't deserve it. Cheers to knowing successful people.
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