Day Nine -- Boozing it up in Mendoza

We spent Wednesday afternoon on two different wine tours. The first, Catena Zapata, was in a town called Lujan de Cuyo. It’s apparently one of the most esteemed wineries in Argentina, and is absolutely gorgeous. The bodega was a modern, pyramid-shaped structure surrounded on three sides by the vineyard and facing the Andes. The interior was built of Argentine materials--beautiful stone and wood. The tasting room was awesome--it had a wall of windows looking out onto rows and rows of barrels. We also saw Catena’s personal collection cellar, which contained about 75,000 bottles from all over the world!

We went on a very informative tour, where our guide explained the differences between their premium stuff--Nicolas Catena Zapata--and their cheaper brands (like Alamos). First, only the best grapes are chosen for the premium wine. Second, the barrels used to age the wine are 100% first-use French oak. Alamos uses lesser grapes aged for shorter periods in a mix of French and American oak barrels that have been used 2 or 3 times before. Also, NCZ is made in smaller batches and different processes are used. For example, they use egg whites to filter the wine. The lesser wines are made in bigger stainless steel vats and are filtered differently. The grapes that are even less desirable and the barrels that have been used three times are shipped to their other vineyard--Esmerelda--where they apparently make crappy wine with them. By the way, the 2002 NCZ, which will be released next year, is expected to be fantastic if you have an extra $100 to blow.

The grapes are all harvested by hand between February and April. One of the men who took the tour works in a Catena Zapata vineyard, and he told us that the migrant farm workers who pick the grapes earn about US$1.50 per hour. I guess it is easy to afford fancy digs when you pay your laborers such a minimal amount.

We had to skip out on the tasting, unfortunately, because we were due at a winery called Luigi Bosca. The facilities there were much less showy, and we were the only ones on the tour. Our guide was very sweet, and since we’d already been on a couple of tours that explained the process of winemaking, she used our time to let us try four different wines. While chit-chatting about the Argentine culture and economy, she taught us about wine-tasting etiquette. For example, she told me the whole spitting the wine out thing is optional. Needless to say I left there feeling pretty good.

After a long walk through the streets of Mendoza, we finished the day off with another fabulous steak meal that we would never be able to afford in the US. This one was at a restaurant at the Escorihuela vineyard, where we enjoyed their their Gascon Syrah (2003) and Chardonnay (2004).

--Elva