Rick's Excellent Adventure in Argentina - Part 1

Day #1

I'm sitting at Philadelphia International Airport waiting for the first leg of my trip to Catena Winery in Mendoza, Argentina to start. The travel will be a little long but I am sure that the end result will be well worth it. I fly from here to Dallas, TX then to Santiago, Chile and then into Mendoza Argentina. From start to finish about 22 hours, but before I know it, I will be tasting Tilia Wines at the orientation on Sunday.

After a long, hard, boring flight I made it through my first leg of the trip. We all meet up in the airport in Santiago, Chille. We started the day with I was told is a Malbec Camp tradition, introductions at the Pesoc Sour Bar and a toast to the week ahead.

We boarded our plan for a quick flight over the Andes Mountains, it was straight up and straight down with a lot of up and down, and right and left. I now know what a ping pong ball feels like. I later learned was a form the Dunder Winds from Chile to Argentina.

We arrive at the family estate La Vendimia “Catena Zapata Family Estancia” compound & Vineyard located in the Rivadavia District of Mendoza. Laura Catena was waiting on the front porch for us. After the introductions we started the afternoon with some relaxation, I went horseback riding. My horse was very high strung so I was led around by the nose with a Gaucho holding the rains. It was still very nice because we rode around the vineyard and got the chance to see a lot of the property. After that, we had a lunch of beef and cheese. We also had a 2002 Vintage Catena Zapata Chardonnay. Wow, it was fantastic, golden in color with the flavors of the best Chablis I had even tasted.

Right after lunch a band came out and played Argentine folk music, two young couples demonstrated the traditional folk dances. Laura got out there with one of our team and then they played a song that Laura said we must all get up and dance to, well one of the very pretty young ladies came to me and I am very proud to say I didn’t step on her feet once.




Later we went out in the back yard to a pavilion and tasted the Tilia wines. We had Chardonnay, Malbec, Torrentoes, Bonarda and Malbec/Syrah. Very nice wines, easy drinking and nice to the pocket, my favorite was the Malbec/Syrah and the Torrentoes. Don’t get me wrong, all of the wines were very good and a great value.


Next,a butcher showed up with a side of beef that he hung in the pavilion and proceeded to cut. There was another guy that took the meat and covered with salt and then cooked the meat on an open fire grill. Laura and Pablo Piccolo who is in charge of exports for Catena Wines, joined us for dinner. I have to tell you, the meat was fantastic, as was the entire meal. We then shifted into the Sitting Room for dessert and espresso and talked well into the night.

That ends day one of Malbec Camp. My understanding is that in the morning we will head up to Ernesto’s Catena’s vineyard Alma Negra, where we will learn about organic an biodynamic vineyard concepts. So for now, good night and I will be back soon with my next installment!