Dan's Papers - August 29, 2008 - First Tango In Mendoza

A Trip To Rivadavia In Argentina Produced A Few Surprises, Not All Of Them About Wine

Some of today's best wine values are found in South American wine regions. Chile has long been a good source for inexpensive wines, but in the last fifteen years Argentina has come on very strong and today their wines are either equal or maybe even a touch ahead of Chile in terms of value. One of the families at the forefront of this revolution has been the Catena family in the Mendoza region. Their wine projects include Catena Winery, Alamos, Tilia, Alma Negra, Luca, Tikal and Ernesto Catena Selections. The importer of Catena wines invited a small group of sommeliers and wine buyers to their Malbec Camp, and though the timing was difficult to justify, I squeezed in the week-long adventure.

The middle of August may be the height of the Hamptons season, but it is late winter in Argentina, so some weather research was required to help with packing. The winter climate in Mendoza is quite agreeable, a bit like San Francisco without the fog. Most days fluctuated between 60 degrees and 69 degrees F, requiring a light sweater in the mornings or when the sun went behind the clouds on a sunny winter afternoon.

The commute is rather arduous. Our route was through Miami as the trip was coordinated by Catena wine importer, Billington Wines, and all the participants were booked on the same flight out of Miami, offering us an opportunity to begin to bond before the camp. Naturally there had to be one sommelier (wine snob) that wanted to prove his wine chops, so during our four-hour layover we were subjected to a litany of Argentine wine questions. It only took a few more hours for the rest of the group to reel the "wine geek" in (though later in the trip the group was referred to as the "wine geek group" by Laura Catena herself, owner of the winery). Due to severe fog in Santiago, Chile, we missed our morning connecting flight over the heart of the Andes to Mendoza and had to endure the intense pollution of the socked-in city of Santiago for several more hours. This gave us more time to learn about everyone's backgrounds (it also gave the original wine geek of the group time for a few more jabs).

After a short hop over the stunning Andes, we landed in Mendoza and were met with nostalgically lax security. One of the group actually snapped pictures after disembarking on the tarmac! Such lack of discretion would have been met with handcuffs and interrogation in most American airports. We then headed to our Camp headquarters at the Catena family summer home, La Vendimia, in Rivadavia. This lovely property is surrounded by old vineyards, many trained in the old traditional parral system (aka tendone and pergola) and irrigated with flood channels throughout the vineyards. Though in general this system produces large quantities of fair grapes, when yields are strictly controlled it is useful in areas where the sun is so powerful that the extra leaf canopy protects the fruit from sunburn.

After an appetizer of homemade empanadas we enjoyed a traditional asado (meal of meats grilled on an open wood/coal fire), during which we were introduced to the educational portion of the Camp and given more insight into our agenda over the next several days. The success and history of Malbec in Mendoza was going to be the diet for our stay. We learned more about Mendoza viticulture than many of us thought existed, about the soil and irrigation that limits phyloxera and how all the vines are on their own root systems (rather than the rest of the vinous world that needs American rootstock to prevent the slow death from phyloxera infestation). We also learned about the clones that are different and better than those found in Malbec's original home of Cahors in southwestern France, about the best trellising systems, why vineyard altitude and exposure is so important and about the art of blending, to name just a few factors.

On our first full day we had the opportunity to experience many of the above factors first hand. Our first stop was the Adrianna Vineyard high in the Tupungato region of the Uco Valley. I have tasted wines from this vineyard before, but never had I known that the Tupungato region was named for the second highest mountain of the Andes that towered over the 5,000 ft high vineyard. The Tupungato tops out at 6,570 meters, or 21,555 feet! In the Adrianna vineyard we were put to work (had to pay for our accommodations and flight somehow) pruning the vines so they were ready to begin producing very high-quality grapes in the coming months. This process is quite important and was overseen by Alejandro Fernandez, the Catena head viticulturist. After the hard work, we were rewarded with single vineyard Malbec from both the Adrianna Vineyard and the Nicasia Vineyard along with more empanadas. The Adrianna had a wonderful aromatic and floral note with a crisp palate and very long finish, while the Nicasia was more brooding and rich with a denser palate and darker fruit. These are part of the blend of the Catena Alta Malbec and help make the wine one of Mendoza's benchmarks. Though not available now, these single vineyard wines could reach the market here in the future.

The next stop was the La Consulta region in the Southern Uco Valley, where we helped plant part of a new Malbec vineyard. This fun exercise helped us understand the problem of finding water in the Mendoza desert where the very poor soil composition forces the plant to struggle and therefore produce better grapes. The most important criterion for purchasing land that is to be planted is water supply. If the property doesn't have access to irrigation channels a well needs to be drilled and a bit of luck is needed. La Consulta is the new hot region for vineyards in Mendoza and is also the furthest south in the region. As Laura Catena mentioned, when one looks south from the vineyard, there is nothing for 1000 miles till the Rio Negra region in Patagonia. Other great benefits to growing vines in the cool regions of Mendoza is the ability to use irrigation control to push the plant to produce more intense berries with thicker skins, which create grapes that are richer in complex tannins, acidity, and concentration in general. A bonus of the strong sun at high altitudes is that the plant works hard to protect the seeds with thicker skins resulting in wines with more resveratrol, the powerful anti-oxidant that helps reduce cholesterol and helps us live longer! The wine with the highest concentrations of resveratrol are Malbec grown in Mendoza at elevations of 4,500 feet or higher, such as the Alta Malbec from Catena or the new single vineyard Malbec from Adrianna in Tupungato.

The next day was devoted to the winery, and what a winery it is. The Catena winery was designed in the manner of a Pyramid on a property they call La Pirámide, in the sub-region of Agrelo that is within the Lujan de Cuyo region of northern Mendoza. The elevation is 3,100 feet, so the wines produced are rich with dark berry and plum flavors that nicely compliment the more aromatic fruit from higher elevations. Our duties in the winery included battonage (French for stirring of the lees) of the Chardonnay barrels, racking the Malbec from barrel to tank and measuring the oxygen levels to make sure the wine is not getting either too much or too little, not to mention the all important blending of the wines from each vineyard. We tasted the Malbec from each vineyard and then determined our blend. We also tasted their final blend, aka Catena Alta Malbec. I opted to use higher percentages of the La Consulta and Adrianna fruit that is from the higher altitude sites. This imparts that lovely floral component and a long bright finish with plenty of tannic grip and the all important resveratrol to help me live longer (so I can drink more wine, of course). Now, while I don't have to worry about the economics or politics of using only certain vineyards in my blend, the winemaker doesn't have the same luxury.

After lunch and an animated conversation with Laura and her staff about marketing and how to let the world know about the great Malbecs of Mendoza, we had two last duties, or so we thought. These included a test of our knowledge of Mendoza winemaking and viticulture along with an empanada-making lesson. After graduating from Malbec Camp and receiving a Certificate as a Master in High Altitude Malbec, we enjoyed our last dinner at the family's summer home. But the next project came as a bit of a surprise for us.

We watched as the room was cleared out and turned into a Tango classroom. First came the pros. Wow! They would put Dancing With The Stars to shame. Then came the lessons for all the wine geeks. Amazingly, none of us tumbled embarrassingly to the floor. But now my wife wants proof of these lessons. I told her all I have are a few pictures. Seems my two left feet carried me back north of the equator.

Christopher Miller is Dan's Papers' "Wine Guide" Senior Wine Writer. Mr. Miller is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, an Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, a wine consultant for Sherry-Lehmann and wine educator. He is also the Education Director for Long Island's Sommelier Society of America, and has held the position of saucier chef at Schweizerhof in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and that of sommelier at Manhattan's '21' Club. He is teaching a Captain's Course at Ruvo Restaurants in the September. Visit his website www.noblewines.com