Mendoza Wine Tasting with Mendoza Wine Camp: More than Just Malbec
Okay, so it’s true that Mendoza wine tasting is definitely more than just Malbec, but… Malbec is still a huge and important part of it. Just saying.
My Mendoza wine tour with Mendoza Wine Camp was an awesome and thorough journey through Argentina’s most famous wine region, complete with rich history, fun activities, and much more than Malbec… although Malbec was still my highlight. Okay, I’m done now.
I made it my goal to eventually do some Mendoza wine tasting way back when I was a waitress at a restaurant in Sydney – where the taste of Malbec, the only Argentinian wine we served, first touched my lips. This is what first intrigued me about this winemaking region, but I had no idea that there was so much rich history behind this fairly recently popularized region.
Pin this Mendoza Wine Tasting Guide to Pinterest!
When you delve deeper behind the scenes of Mendoza, you find a lot of troubled history. You find stories of failure and bankruptcy, trial and triumph, and 20-year lulls before anyone could salvage previously successful wineries from their abandonment.
Mendoza’s wine region’s history roughly parallel’s quite a few major events in Argentina’s history, which I was happy to learn about from our amazing tour guide and owner of Mendoza Wine Camp, Adam. Having previously been in southern Patagonia for two weeks and northern Patagonia for two weeks, I had not learned too much about Argentina’s history. But when I was picked up by the minivan at 9am on a lovely crisp fall morning, I was ready for some Argentine history – mixed in with everything about wine, of course.
Some amazing scenes from the day. View the rest of my Mendoza Photo Gallery Here!
But First – Why Not Check Out Some More Argentina Content? (These Open in a New Tab!)
- A complete guide to Buenos Aires
- An Itinerary to Iguazu Falls
- A Guide to the Salta + Jujuy regions of Northern Argentina
- A Guide to Wine Tasting in Mendoza
- A Cafayate Itinerary with Adventures + Wine
- Argentina Destinations You Didn’t Know Existed
- Things to Do in Argentina: A Complete Argentina Bucket List
- Riding The Train to the Clouds in Salta
Mendoza Wine Tasting – A Brief Intro of its Fascinating History
To start off, I had no idea how new this region’s successes really were. See, Mendoza used to produce a lot of wine – but it was not good wine. Prior to the 70’s and 80’s, before the time of beer and other options to drink, Argentinians used to drink about 100L of wine per person, per year.
Yes, I did just say that Argentinians used to drink 100L of wine per person, per year. How insane is that?!
But the thing about this wine, is that it was table wine. It was simply made for consumption in large quantities, and no attention was paid to the winemaking process. They actually still used (and still do to this day) Inca Irrigation systems, which were regulated by the government to give water at certain times of the week to each property. The winemakers didn’t know anything different about irrigation processes to vineyards, so they would inundate their vines with water once a week to water them.
Wine was produced in these large quantities in massive concrete vats, and stored in there. This gave the wines a very harsh taste.
This wine didn’t turn out great, but it was drinkable. People would mix it with soda and juice, and drink it socially… very socially. Like, 100L per year per person kind of socially.
But in the 70’s and 80’s, other drinks came onto the market.
Before, wine was the drink to have… basically all the time. But then, coca cola and beer came on the scene, offering much more choice in the beverage market. Unfortunately, this caused most of the mass-producing wineries to go broke, and fast.
This was a very bad time for Mendoza wine region. In fact, many wineries were abandoned for 20+ years, until the mid-late 90’s.
But, Mendoza’s climate makes for a fantastic place to grow wine – and this would eventually prevail. In that it’s a sunny region, there’s a lot of sugar in the grapes. But in that it’s a desert next to the Andes mountains, with hot days and cold nights, the grapes grow a thick skin to adapt. This high sugar content and thick skin gives a unique property to wine here – with a high alcohol content (because of the sugar) but a well balanced taste too.
One of the poineers of Mendoza’s resurgence saw this potential, and implemented a drip irrigation system to his vines after visiting Napa in California (instead of all the water at once each week). He was able to make some bomb wine- like, 96 points bomb. And guess what kind it was?! The Malbec, of course! A little overlooked local grape, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, produced a massive result.
This got Mendoza recognized yet again, and investors from wine regions across the world all wanted their piece of the Mendoza pie… er, grape?
Investors from France, the US, and more saw this up-and-coming potential, and got in early… even Bono was a part of it!
I bet you can tell where the story goes from there. By now we are around 2001, when Argentina actually had an economic crisis. But, the money and potential were in Mendoza. In 2003-2005m Legend has it (er.. Adam said that) new wineries were popping up every month! They all changed their irrigation systems to produce wines of a similar quality to that award-winning Malbec.
And yes, this was under 20 years ago! Didn’t know the region was actually that young, did ya? Mendoza is still growing and changing as a wine region, producing more and more different varietals each year after focusing on Malbec and the region’s more common varietals at first.
There are actually three different parts of ‘Mendoza wine region:” The Uco Valley, Maipu, and Lujan de Cuyo, which is where my Mendoza wine tasting tour went. One day I hope to visit the other wine regions of Mendoza!
Mendoza Wine Tasting Bodega 1: Clos de Chacras
After driving through some of Mendoza’s nicest neighborhoods bordered by beautiful orange and yellow trees changing color for the season, we rolled up to our first winery, Clos de Chacras, just before 10 am. What better time to start drinking?!
We were warmly greeted and shown over to the vineyard, and it was explained to us that there was a little netting cover over the vines to protect them from hail, which is apparently a big problem here! They didn’t look as scenic as some of those dreamy vineyard photos you see, but sometimes you have to be practical!
Clos de Chacras is unique because it was actually one of those wineries I was talking about that used to mass produce millions of liters of table wine per year from the 1880’s – 3.5 million to be exact – but went out of business when beer and soda came on the market. The winery was left abandoned for years, and the coolest part is that the granddaughters of the original owner actually found and purchased the winery during the rebirth of Mendoza – so it never left the family! The sisters still live on the property and help with the winemaking.
Doesn’t that just warm your little heart?! It sure did warm mine.
Course 1 of our pairings.
Nowadays, this winery produces far less wine (140k bottles) and is ALL done by hand. We got to see the table where the workers sift the leaves, stones, and webs from their hand-cut vines, use a machine to separate them, then crush the grapes by inflating a massive balloon in a tank. Pretty cool if you ask me – literal handmade wine.
We went downstairs and got to walk inside the massive concrete vats where they used to store those 3.5m liters of wine – now used as storage containers for aging bottles. It felt like we were walking back in time, into dim candle-lit hallways with small doors on the wall every few feet with a spigot where the wine would come out.
The first Mendoza wine tasting experience was a mini food and wine pairing class. We first paired a light rose with some salmon and cheese, then an absolutely gorgeous Malbec with a savory cheese and pesto cracker. We learned what made a good pairing, and got to decide for ourselves what we thought of each one.
We had a few more pairings, but my god was that Malbec delicious. I decided afterward that this was my favorite Malbec of the day, and was so sad I didn’t end up buying a bottle! In the years since this, I have decided it was my favorite Malbec EVER and can’t wait to return and buy TONS. Don’t miss out!
Mendoza Wine Tasting Bodega 2: Dante Robino
Much to my delight, we were poured a glass of champinoise upon our arrival to the beautiful Dante Robino Winery, before being taken back to have a look at the cellars. Apparently Dante Robino was an Italian immigrant (of which there were many in Argentina!) who brought his winemaking techniques with him halfway across the world.
In the back there were some of the most massive oak barrels I have ever seen – have you ever seen any that massive? My group and I joked that you could easily make a tiny house from one of them!
We learned quite a bit about the process of making champinoise – which is a bubbly wine like champagne. Here at Dante Robino they actually make only 4000 bottles per year, all by hand! They hand rotate the bottles, and remove the sediment from each bottle themselves by freezing it. It’s crazy to me how different the process is for each wine!
Now it was time for our special activity, because when Mendoza wine tasting with Mendoza Wine Camp you can pretty much expect at least one exciting thing to happen at each winery. This time – it was an actual wine mixing competition.
Before mixing our wines, we had to taste them first! This is where I learned about two wines I had never heard of before – Torrontes, and Bonarda. Torrontes is one of the few white wines they produce here in Mendoza, and interestingly enough it is nicknamed the ‘liar wine.’ This is because it is extremely sweet on the nose – like, it smells like a Moscato. But, when you drink it, it’s actually not sweet at all and rather dry! This was very interesting to the senses.
Bonarda is actually a red grape varietal that is native to Mendoza, and was often overlooked as a ‘filler wine’ in the wake of the popularity of Malbec. It’s now finally being considered and grown to be award-winning in its own right, and they say at Dante Robino, it’s the next big thing!
A Mendoza Wine Tasting Mixing Competition
After tasting all the wines and learning about their properties, we were given an actual measuring flask and funnel, and given the task of making a red wine blend from the three reds: Melbec, Bonarda, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Adam warned us that friends are lost in this competition, and the other two attendees and I knew that it was game on. Shielding our mix percentages from each other (and quite frankly not knowing what the hell we were doing, if I’m being honest), we made a 50ml mix in our flask from the three wines. My tactic was to go 60% of the stronger wine, 30% of the softest, and 10% of the middle. Don’t ask me why. I thought that having one taste dominating it might be a good idea!
After quite a lot of deliberating between Adam and the workers, it turned out that I was right… I had won!!! I gave my wine the ever-so-creative (I think it was only me who thought that) name of Kimte Conbino…. mixing my name with that of the winery. 😛
I got to make my very own bottle from my expert mixing proportions, which they warned me to drink within a few days because the wine was not yet aged. And drink it, I did. (does anyone remember my Instagram story? Mendoza is up as a highlight!)
Prouder of my wine bottle than a newborn baby 😛 Oh, and they had ancient wine making machines (like this old corking machine) next to modern art in the basement! Can you say trendy?! View the rest of my Mendoza Photo Gallery Here!
Mendoza Wine Tasting Bodega 3: Vistalba
And then, it was time for our incredible food and wine paired lunch. I think it was meant to be 5 courses, but I honestly lost count. We had SO MUCH amazing food, and a few bonus mid-courses thrown in there as well. It was an actual dream come true, and included my first real Argentinian Parilla steak!
Our table looked out on one side to an expanse of fall-colored vines, and on the other to a beautiful courtyard with the Andes in the back. Clearly, I had a lot of fun taking photos!
Our first course (which might have just been a pre-course) was homemade bread with local olive oil paired with a sparkling rose. Next was a shrimp course, then a salmon course, then an ahhhhmazing steak course, a cheese-three-ways course (involving foam and cheese gelato… it was so gourmet. I didn’t feel worthy), then a mate-flavored (an Argentinian tea) lemon pop mid-course, then a chocolate mousse dessert, and THEN a final dessert of a selection of a few different things.
Phew… that’s a lot more than five, isn’t it?
Yeah, I think so too. That’s what made it so mind-blowing. Everything was paired with 5 or 6 wines as well, roughly after the sparkling rose with a pinot noir, a malbec (of course), a lovely sweet wine, and another rose. It was an absolute delight to all my taste buds and my belly. The service was impeccable as well – I didn’t want to leave!
Just one of our amazing courses and amazing waiters!
Mendoza Wine Tasting Bodega 4: Caelum
And that’s the end of my blog post because I remember nothing from Bodega number 4.
Just kidding…. kindof. 😛
This winery was the most boutique of them all, with a lovely view of fall-colored rows of vines and the snow-capped Andes mountains. We first went into the back and tried a few different wines straight from the holding tank – not in their final form, but tasty nonetheless.
We also got to see the next stage of their development – the oak barrels – of which there were a couple dozen in a cool, temperature controlled room.
After that it was time for our final tasting of the day, and trust me, we couldn’t have handled any more! They really didn’t hold back on the wine tastings today, and we were having a grand old time.
Through tastes of many of the same grape varietals we had had earlier in the day but with a Caelum spin, we learned that there are actually three different stages of tasting a wine, which tell you three different things.
First, the primary aroma will tell you things from outside – where the vine was grown. These can be things like jasmine, peach, and fruity things, and will tell you about the grape’s growing conditions.
Second, the secondary taste will tell you about the fermentation process. Hints such as toasted, buttery, and lactic will give you information about how and in what material the wine was fermented.
Third, the tertiary taste will tell you about the barrel the wine was aged in. Hints such as chocolate, smoke, and tobacco will tell you about what kind of oak the wine was aged in, and from where.
And there you go…. the more you know!
After a few tipsy pictures in the vines with our lovely guides, it was time for a small nap in the van on the way back to my accommodation. 😛 It was truly more than just Malbec – it was types of wine I hadn’t even heard of, it was history, it was culture, it was interactive, and it was an adventure. It was such a fantastic day full of activities and amazing new knowledge and new wines, and I couldn’t have been happier!
Mendoza Wine Tasting with Mendoza Wine Camp
What makes Mendoza wine tasting with Mendoza wine camp so awesome is that there’s a different activity at each winery. It’s not like you walk into each winery, sit down, and are served wine to taste. Mendoza Wine camp is interactive, with pairing classes, a wine mixing contest, a 5-course lunch with a different wine with each course (that I will never ever forget), and tasting right from the barrel and tank!
There was no winery where we weren’t invited in the back to tour the winemaking process, stand inside old concrete vats, or try unfinished wine from the tank to compare it to the finished wine. Mendoza wine camp guides are always eager to learn and expand their knowledge too, which makes it feel like so much more of an authentic experience.
The coolest part is that you can also do multi-day Mendoza wine tasting tours with them too. Multi-day Mendoza wine tasting tours can go to all three wine regions, and also include a big dose of culture and local food (hello, asados!) as well.
Think, wine and cheese, olive oil, and even horse riding. I was super intrigued by this idea… as an adventure blogger, I love to mix my wine tasting in with an outdoor adventure! Next time, for sure.