What is not to like? … sitting in a cellar door in Mendoza, looking out across the high-altitude vibrant vineyard with the snow- capped Andes Mountains in the background.
Mendoza is the heart of Argentina’s wine country and home to Malbec, a full bodied dry red wine.
During our stay in Mendoza, we did a day trip to the Uco Valley, and did the ‘Grapes on the Edge Tour’ where we visited a high- altitude vineyard. The Uco Valley is south of Mendoza and specialise in high altitude wines, situated at 1,300m above sea level in the foothills of the Andes mountains. As you drive through the Valley you are struck by the rocky, barren and the extreme conditions that the grapes grow, you could easily be mistaken to thinking that you have just arrived on the moon. It was quite surreal to look across the vineyards in a desert of rocky soil and then the snow- capped Andes right in front of you. It is really quite spectacular.
During the tour, we visited the family run Andeluna Winery that was founded in 2003. The name ‘Ande’ ‘luna’ was named to represent the symbiosis between the epic mountain of the Andes and the starry skies above. They have the capacity to produce 1.5m litres in stainless steel tanks, and have 1,000 oak barrels for the 1million bottles produced annually. On our tour of their production facilities, we saw the large ceramic eggs they use for fermenting the grape juice for their white varietals and they also use these large ceramic eggs for preserving their red wines.
We also explored the Lujan de Cuyo wine region west of Mendoza that produce exemplary classic red wines. We went on the Lujan De Cuyo Wine Tour at Clos de Chacras, a small winery established in the 1920s, where we had the unique opportunity of blending our own wine. Their man grape varieties are Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay.
Whilst travelling through Mendoza, you continue to come across the Crios brand/label. Crios is the label of renowned Argentinian wine maker Susana Balbo. Crios wines are harvested from specific areas in Mendoza and Salta where the grapes are optimal for the fruit forward style of Malbec. (2016)
