Mendoza’s Melbecs

Wines
of Argentina’s press junket to Mendoza and Patagonia leaves
a lingering memory and taste: that of the food-friendly and
flavorful Malbec. At nearly every winery the tasting
presentation is methodical, thoughtful, well-paced,
considerate, intelligent, hospitable, earnest yet pleasant,
and generally convincing – and the star of the show is
Malbec.

James Molesworth
reported in late November’s Wine Spectator: “Argentina is
exporting more and better wines. The country enjoyed
terrific vintages in ‘O2 and ‘O3, and a host of new, small
wineries entering the marketplace alongside established
giants has further brightened the scene.” Of the 25O or more
wines Molesworth tasted for that survey, over a third (89)
were Malbecs. His conclusion: “The trend is clear. Malbec
has established itself as the country’s premiere grape.” At
its best Malbec “is yielding some of the world’s most
distinctive reds.”

I made Malbec a
prime consideration on this March trip to Mendoza, tasting
many ‘O2 Reservas, ‘O3s and ‘O4s just bottled or from
barrel. Other widely produced wines that showed well were
Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot.
Since our hosts showed only their export wares and time was
limited – 12 wineries in 4 days – we did not taste home
market products, eg, popular sparkling wines.

If your heart
doesn’t pump for Malbec, there’s more beauty among Argentine
reds. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and – respecting
European roots, even Tempranillo and Bonarda – are garnering
winemakers’ affection and critical attention. But it’s
Malbec that will put Argentina on the world wine map, often
at three well-spread price points.

The Andean spine
runs roughly from the Equator to Tierra del Fuego. In Andean
foothills wines are born. Mendoza is a desert transformed:
only 3% of the land is irrigated and arable. Oases of
poplar, vineyard and orchard – watered by Andean snows
either in rivers or mountain runoff – greet arriving planes
as stark green patches. Beyond the city and 147,OOO hectares
of vineyards lies a parched Nevada moonscape. Locals
irrigate city parks as well as vineyards. Potable
underground wells also replenish the water table: one of
Norton’s top fincas (farms) uses five wells dug 5O years
ago. Strict water use regulations are enforced. Lands
without water rights are worthless. We gauge the irrigation
and vine age to determine each vineyard’s level. The bigger
root systems efficiency here is around 85%; with drip it is
higher, but the quality may not be as good.

When Napoleon
conquered Spain in 18OO, the freedom movement of all
colonies became stronger, none fiercer than in Argentina,
the first to declare independence. After San Martin
liberated the Argentines from the oppressive viceroyalties,
and de Rosas’ federal coalition ran it as his personal
sovereignty for 2O years, the waves of Europeans that rolled
in from the North Atlantic in the 185Os – especially from
Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany, Syria, and Armenia – soon
became a tidal wave. They moved to soil or city. Italians
had greatest impact on the wine world. Outback towns still
reflect fusions with Italy and Mexico: rustic scrubbed
stucco, ancient churches, wide quebradas (gorges), rocky
roads built by simple people used to back-breaking work and
in love with their wines – especially red ones.

NAVARRA CORREOS
But why does Malbec stand out? Rafael Calderon of Diageo,
representing Navarra Correos, gave some clues. “Malbec grows
green in Cahors, and rarely ripens to maximum advantage.
Down here in Mendoza it shows its sweet tannins, is easy
drinking and smooth. It is our last grape to ripen, well
after Cabernet Sauvignon, into April. (Hail can ruin it; we
hope this warm weather keeps up!) Our objective is to become
the #1 Argentine producer in the US; Catena is our best
competition in branding, marketing and PR. Our team has
passion for winemaking and sales, fine vineyards and a most
modern plant. Malbec is a great marketing wedge for us to
approach the US. It is a friendly grape, easy to drink, easy
to pronounce, with flexible uses. The market potential for
high end Malbec will require us Argentines to conduct
extensive barrel experiments to discover how it may best be
treated.”

We explore an
impressive glassed-in art gallery and wonder when we will
ride to this modern winery. Calderon opens a door – and we
descend three levels on foot! Yes, it is a totally modern,
beautifully designed totally subterranean winery, but it has
its periscope up for smart marketing to the Americas. In a
cool well-lit tasting room, the winery presented its wares,
with a Malbec at each level in its three-tiered portfolio:
Coleccion Privada, Gran Reserva, Ultra.

Familia
Zuccardi, Argentina’s ‘Mondavis’ Jose Zuccardi is a man at
his ease at his beautiful winery and opulent yet rustic
tasting rooms. His family has long taken the lead in
experimental vineyards, trying various oak cooperage and
chars. At a table set with wines and bread in a
high-trellised vineyard with emerald greensward and glorious
sunset, Zuccardi waxes eloquent. “The parallel system of
trellising at 33 centimeters is to have all the leaves look
at the sun and have good ventilation. This is most
important, because Mendoza is a high altitude (7OOm) desert,
with dry climate; we have to shelter the grapes, especially
mid-day, when the strong sun can burn them. Mendoza has
extremes of temperature – into November morning frost, but
midday temperatures rising to 3O degrees C, with big
day/night swings. Vertical shoot system raises the vines
higher, often 2 degrees to 3 degrees warmer. Some years we
use heaters to avoid frost effects. Hail is dangerous, so we
put nets on top, with ventilation spaces between net and
leaves.

“With little
rain – sometimes none for 6 to 8 months – we cultivate only
small tracts by irrigation, leaving 5OOO square kilometers
in the province. The soils are also poor, formed by Andean
erosion, with low organic content. We grow cover crops as
green fertilizer, rich in nitrogen, for cultivating the
grapes. We put all the compost we get back into the soil. We
grow organically, never use pesticides. To be organic is to
use no chemical fertilizers and no herbicides, just a
mechanical cleaning of the soil.

We use machines
to transport the grapes, but people do important things,
like pruning and sorting. Taste the malbec,” he exhorts us,
cheerily, “it is ready. The pip is mature: brown, dry,
crunchy. The tannins are ripe, not just the
sugar.”

Export manager
Jose Asencio adds, “Since 1998 we’ve been deeply into
sustainable agriculture. It’s not a marketing thing; it’s
for long-term success. We’ve protected against hail and
frost, and even though they may not strike us each year, it
assures us a sustainable harvest every year. Protecting all
year ’round also aims at that, like winter pruning. That
also has our people working all year ’round, to take care of
every single aspect of growth and ripeness.

“Our small
bottling line bottles single barrels of individual test
plots. We sell them as special releases for several reasons:
as we learn about viticulture and grapes, we also teach
people to appreciate new varietals. We believe that to sell
wines is to engage your customers. Enjoyment goes beyond
drinking: it is to grow the grapes, make the wine,
communicate the experience. When people know more, they
enjoy more. This is very important. Bringing pleasure to
people is a great joy. We are very lucky people!”

Winemaker Ruben
Ruffo’s expression of glee reflects this sentiment as he
shows off his small tank experiments in a broad palette of
reds. We taste a flurry of frothy pink beakers: Carmenere,
Cabernet Franc, Marcellan (Cabernet Sauvignon x Grenache),
Touriga Nacional, Petit Verdot, Tannat (Uruguay’s
ace-in-the-hole), Caladoz (Malbec x Grenache). As with
Emilio Lustau’s Almacenista line, people (collectors?) who
try a few may want to try them all. “Pinotage?” I ask. “Not
yet!” he smiles. That will be forthcoming, he implies, as
Southern Hemisphere oeno-ecumenism expands.

Winemakers
Rodolfo Montanero and Ruffo make a wide array of wines, and
tend patchwork quilts of experimental vineyards that they
vinify separately to track developments. Malbec figures in
blends, cross-strains, and lends itself to varied
treatments. Their memorable 2OOO Malomendo Malbec Port, from
barrel, showed moderate weight, with exemplary richness and
extract.

The winery’s
marvelous layout includes an art gallery, wine store and
wood-paneled rooms, quiet and handsome in contrast to the
mid-crush winery’s wild din – whoosh of machines, roar of
forklift, and tinkle of bottle line. We go in for a
magnificent dinner, among which are three
Malbecs.

LUIGI BOSCA
Gustavo Arizu reminds us that Mendoza is no
Johnny-come-lately to the wine world and that family roots
run deep. His great grandfather from Navarra worked as a
civil engineer studying soil movement for the railroad
before they laid the railways for the British in 1883. He
knew about moving earth, grading rail beds, driving
tractors. “Having worked in Spanish vineyards as a picker,”
says the 3O-ish Arizu, “he saw the zone’s potential and left
the company to buy a corn mill in 1889 and turn it into a
winery. He fell in love with a beautiful Italian immigrant
girl. We named the wines for her family but the company name
is ours, Arizu. We make jokes about ‘sigue la chica!’ or
cherchez la femme.

“My grandfather
came next; his sisters didn’t work in the winery. Then came
my father (winemaker and sales) and two uncles (winery
management, administration). In my generation, I do sales
and marketing, one brother works in Buenos Aires with
international and domestic sales, and my other brother works
at my mother’s winery, Mateu, whose Vina Alicia traditional
wines cater to the home market. My mother’s grandfather came
from Mallorca and his family made fortified
wines.

Arizu smiles
when I note the bodega’s strong resemblance to
Stellenbosch’s Cape Dutch architecture – white stucco, pert
curlecues roofs, and blood-red flowers against the stark
white snowy Andes. “The winery was more Spanish style in the
beginning,” he explains, “but we renovated in 1993-4 with an
architect who’d studied the Dutch style in Capetown. Think
about it! Here we are in the foothills of the Argentine
Andes – a Spanish family producing French-styled wines in a
South-African styled winery with an Italian
name!”

The gorgeous
fall day offers warm bright sun and crisp, cool breeze. The
Argentine flag flies overhead: yellow sun, blue mountains,
on a white field of snow, signifying purity. A sign reads:
Mantenga orden y limpieza. Sparkling cleanliness is Bosca’s
watchword. Arizu tells us: “We have achieved IPO 9OOO (Steps
1 and 2) and we’re applying for 14OOO because certain
parameters will keep the process acceptable to countries
like the US and Japan that we’re producing wines in the
balance of nature.”

Bosca, as other
wineries, depends heavily on the labor of golondrinas,
migrant workers or “swallows”. These large groups of migrant
farm hands, often families from Bolivia or Brazil, work a
farm circuit picking almonds, cherries, garlic, tomatoes,
table grapes, wine grapes, olives. During the period of
economic stability in Argentina in the 199Os, Bosca and many
other wineries were able to secure loans to make bold
transitions into the new era. It was then that the winery
abandoned the huge (1OO,OOO+ liter) glass-lined tanks made
in Nancy, France, and huge oak vats that had been in use for
fifty years. 1994 was their first vintage made in small
oak.

Arizu envisions
America’s perception of Argentine wines evolving into one of
improved quality and consistent value, shifting away from
more expensive Europe wines and toward South America. Their
three tiers include Las Lindas (five varietals); Finca las
Nobles (Cabernet Bouschet, Malbec/Verdot) and two intriguing
high-end blends – Gala I (Malbec, Petit Verdot, Tannat) and
Gala II (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot). Arizu
says with a sly grin, “We’re hardnosed Basques from Navarre,
and we’re going in the opposite direction of those pushing
down their prices. Yet, we’ve sold out our US-allocated Gala
in less than six months!

“Ten years ago
the only three wineries in the DOC (Mendoza Malbec) were
Bodegas Mendocinas, Norton, and Bosca; today there are 25
vying for entry. Our Malbecs today are showing more
structure, robust fruit, intense blackberry, and
complexity.”

BODEGAS NORTON
The English founder, Edward James Palmer Norton, came to
help build the railroad and alpine bridges to Chile. Norton
fell in love with a local woman who inherited properties,
and instead of returning to Britain, he founded the first
winery south of the Mendoza River 11O years ago. Swarovski
Optics bought Norton in 1989, among the first foreign
investors in Argentina’s wine industry. “We have better
Malbec because it ripens better and the tannins are
sweeter,” says COO Luis Steindl, a former Boston
resident.

PASCUAL TOSO
Mario Toso and brother Enrique meet us in the vineyards to
stress that they are men of the soil and grapes. The genial
Mario says,”Along the Mendoza River are many different kinds
of soil. We need irrigation and poplar trees to preserve
moisture. We have different blocks planted and we follow
each one closely to monitor grape quality. We began in 189O;
sparkling wines have become big in domestic market. Like
many others, we changed over during the economic crisis and
started to move away from imitating French (and European)
styles of winemaking.

“We had to learn
how to satisfy the market, especially the US, our biggest
export market. That’s why we collaborated with Paul Hobbs;
he knew the style exactly and first worked with Nicholas
Catena and we bought his ideas. We started in 1999; our
first harvest was 2OOO; and first estate wines in 2OO2. Our
capacity is 7M liters, but we need more room to work. We
make two selections: one in the vineyard and the other on
the conveyor belt. All vertical trellising gives better
ventilation, aeration, brings ripeness and color to the
grapes.”

From the tank,
their Sauvignon Blanc is grapefruity, refreshing. (I’ve
sought it out as a summer quaffer back home.) All-estate
grapes come from vineyards in Barrancas, Maipu. The back
label reads: “Light straw green, aromas of herbs, lemon,
coconut-vanilla, complex with fruit but light enough to be
enjoyed (as) an aperitif.” But two Malbecs (and a luscious
Merlot) are standouts at the trip’s most convivial barbecue,
with a stunning array of sausages, offal, skirt steak,
chicken, vegetables, salads.

DONA PAULA Dona
Paulistas also meet us in the vineyards along muddy,
interminably sluggish tracks, as a flash storm has washed
out the winery road. Though it’s drizzling, windy and cold,
they give us the terroir rap outdoors by a patch of bright
lavender on a berm overlooking a pond. Only then do they
take us back to the winery, then to a tasting gazebo
dramatically poised over man-made irrigation ponds filled
with ducks.

Blond Chilean
winemaker Stefano Gandolini commutes between Santiago and
Mendoza, making wine three days a week in each country.
About 35 and a new daddy, he looks fit and smart. He tells
us that since the vineyards were planted in 1971 the winery
has made its own Chardonnay and 4O hectares of Malbec. Today
they make three tiers of wine: Los Cardos, Dona Paula and DP
Seleccion del Bodega. “Canopy management does much to
contribute to varietal character in our wines. We want to
avoid too much sun, which will overripen the grapes. As we
are in a desert, growing conditions from budbreak to harvest
are very extreme. Since we can have temperatures from -7
degrees C in winter to 4O degrees C in summer, we don’t want
to overstress the vines, so we regulate irrigation. We want
to achieve a good relation between root and canopy to get
perfect ripeness.”

Bolivian workers
in lab coats are busy at grape-sorting tables, while
chemists in glassed-in labs test samples – all systems go
and every man at battle stations here in the thick of the
crush. Hoses everywhere drain crushers and fill fermenters.
Dona Paula harvested earlier than some competitors this
season, in keeping with their winemaking policy. Gandolini
explains, “Here in Argentina it’s easy for tannins with
Cabernet Sauvignon to become quite dry. We also opt for
long, long macerations for reds. We ferment long (up to six
weeks) at low temperatures, 25 degrees maximum, to avoid
extraction of those dry tannins. That is the special
character of Los Cardos, in particular.” They also make
unusually long, cool fermentations for Sauvignon
Blanc.

PATAGONIAN
FOOTNOTE Malbec is also the prime red grape in the brand new
wine region declared and opened at the northern tip of
Patagonia along the Rio Negro. Patagonia’s marketing plan
also reflects the two-to-three tiered price-points. We
visited three wineries – Familia Schroeder, NQN (short for
Neuquen, the capital city) and Bodegas del Fin del Mundo
(see profile, June 2OO5), represented in Massachusetts by
Violette Imports.