Go to Mendoza. Drink Some Wine.
We visited five wineries while in Mendoza, Argentina’s wine country. Of those, three ranked in the top 25 of the World’s Best Vineyards.
Trapiche (#17)
El Enemigo Wines (#21)
Bodegas Salentein (#25)
My favorite winery for the experience was El Enemigo, which served the best meal we had in Argentina and which had the most charming property. The best winery we saw in terms of architecture and tour quality was Salentein, which had an incredible underground chamber designed for optimal acoustics for small concerts. It is important to get tickets in advance if you want to visit these vineyards. We ended up booking a tour that arranged transportation and got us tickets at most of these wineries. This was the best decision both logistically because we didn’t have to figure out how to get from place to place and financially because the group tour gave discounted ticket prices at every winery.
I learned a lot about wine on this trip. A few of my favorite “ah ha” moments included:
Learning that the twist-top (vs cork) is fine for many of the cheaper wines because the wine isn’t going to sit on the shelf and age. Cork is needed for wines that mature longer in the bottle because the natural cork material enables the wine to breathe through the small pores of the wood. However, cheaper bottles are typically served within two to three years of production. Younger wines also tend to have thinner glass bottles; a wine can be aged longer if it has a thicker bottle.
Realizing that my friend accidentally broke the law when she snacked on a banana in Valle de Uco. Apparently, the valley is a micro region and is regulated differently than the rest of Mendoza. It is illegal to import any fruits or vegetables into the valley, which is unnecessary anyway because they grow it all locally. Of course, it is legal to export out of the region—as wineries do this for their business—but to protect the natural region from the type of plague Mendoza experienced on its crops in 2013, Valle de Uco has tight border controls on produce. So, my friend’s to-go breakfast was almost certainly illegal.
Understanding where wine headaches come from. Wineries use sulfites to conserve their wine, but that’s what gives the drinker a headache. Organic wines don’t contain sulfates, so they won’t give you a headache. However, without any preservatives in the wine, you have to consume the bottle 4-6 hours after opening it. Domaine Bosquet is an organic winery that doesn’t use sulfates. Unfortunately, their wine is more expensive in the U.S because they need a certification to make it organic. Theirs is the same wine whether it is in Argentina or in the U.S., but the latter makes them obtain extra documentation that makes the bottle more expensive.
In addition to learning about wine, I also learned about my own preferences. I already knew I didn’t like Chardonnay, but after tasting a perfectly good Chardonnay at El Enemigo, which I learned was steel and not oak aged, I realized I probably just didn’t like the "oakiness” that so many people seek. That was the first of many tastings where I realized that my preferences skewed toward the “younger” (i.e., cheaper) wines. I also appreciated being able to taste wines side-by-side that had similar compositions so I could learn the difference. At El Enemigo we tasted two wines made from the same grapes (even the same original parent vine) and put through the identical processes. The only difference between the bottles was the elevation and soil in which they grew the grapes. The more I tasted the two wines, the harder it was to tell the difference.
Perhaps after more tours such as these, I will learn to taste the subtle differences. Our tour guide at Salentein was at the tail end of her training to become a sommalier. I asked her whether she thought her tastes had changed as a result of her education. She told us about her experience tasting again the wine she previously considered her favorite. After a few years of training, the inexpensive wine she used to love was now unpalatable to her. This gave me encouragement that I, too, could learn the arts of wine, but it also dissuaded me from doing so. My friend and I were perfectly happy drinking the unoaked Chardonnay and many other “young” wines throughout our time in Mendoza. We came away from the tours with several wine names we enjoyed drinking that we can purchase in the United States for less than $30 per bottle. I’ll continue my wine education after this trip, but I’m in no hurry to price myself out of an enjoyable dinner.
Trapiche
Trapiche focuses on Bordeaux as their grape. Their white and red wines come from the same grape, and the difference in color comes from keeping the skins on when producing red wine. They produce around 3.5 million cases of wine per year, making this a relatively large winery. Trapiche also produces some olive oil, but they only use the product at their own restaurants.
El Enemigo Wines
El Enemigo felt like the most artistic vineyard we visited. The owners, a husband and wife couple, spent their lives and careers around wine before starting their own label. They have dotted the vineyard in Mendoza with sculptures, and they have a cellar where they feature art from local artists. The restaurant was incredible in both service and cuisine. Unfortunately, I didn’t think the wine was all that amazing.
Andeluna
Andeluna is considered a medium sized winery. It can produce around 1.2 million bottles (over a hundred thousand cases) of wine per year. The property had one of the most beautiful vistas of the tour, but the winery didn’t boast anything special when it came to their facilities and cellars inside.
Domaine Bousquet
Our tour of Domaine Bousquet was one of the more informative sessions of the day. We learned about organic wines, the vineyard’s unique irrigation system, the building decisions of the facilities that produce and store the wine, and a little bit about the history of the vineyard and owners. Domaine Bousquet is also one of the larger wineries., producing about 7 million bottles in 2020. They export about 95% of everything they produce.
Bodegas Salentein
By the time we reached Salentein I was satiated in terms of both information and alcohol. Despite this, Salentein was one of my favorite tours. The architecture was incredible, and our tour guide, Flor, was fun and informative. Plus, I think I liked the wines the best. Their wines age about 9 meters underground, and their architectural design enables them to maintain a range of 15-20 degrees celsius year round without any air conditioning. They have 92 steel tanks for producing younger wines. They also age wine in oak barrels. Overall, they have about 6,000 oak barrels, of which 80% is made of French oak (for hints of sweet aromas like chocolate) and the other 20% is made of American oak (for flavors like coffee, tobacco, earth, and leather). The high end wine goes into the Primus Room where they house 12 french oak barrels that are used for 12 years each. Every year, one of the oak barrels is rotated out. Red wine ages for up to 30 days in the barrel whereas white wine ages for up to 40 days.
