Rick's Excellent Adventure in Argentina - Part 2

We are up had a fantastic breakfast at the house and are now in the van heading for the Alma Negra Vineyards in Visit Flores. Alma Negra literally means “Dark Soul” and represents the depths of beauty in the shadows of our souls. Ernesto Catena, Laura’s brother, operates this winery. He was not able to be with us but Matias Fraga, his Export Manager and his brand new winemaker was there also. We walked the vineyard and learned about Ernesto’s passion for Biodynamic wine production.


We were told that last harvest he had llamas with baskets on their backs carrying grapes to the winery. They had a slight problem with the llamas eating half of the grapes, but that was something they would work on.


We saw a new winery on the property that is in the construction phase. We learned that there were no plans for the structure. Ernesto would come out and say we should have a door about here and we want the grapes to flow in this direction. There are only 3 guys working on the construction, no rush it will be finished sometime.


After our walk around the vineyard we came back to the reservoir and had pizza baked over open flame fire pit right next to the beef that was cooking for our lunch. Of course we had the Sparkling Shiraz to wash it down.


I did learn about the water issues here in Argentina, as you drive around the area you see troughs everywhere. These troughs carry the water that is used for the irrigation of the crops. When it is your turn a person from the water commission will come out and watch as you close the dam to this property and open it to yours. If you don’t need the water at that point you channel it to your reservoir for later use. So if you plan to move to Argentina and purchase a vineyard make sure you purchase water rights.


We then went into the winery and learned that they only did the sparkling at this facility. The still wines were across the street at the Alamos facility, owned by the Catena Family. We then tasted the Mystery M Blend, the Mystery and the Alma Negra. Wow, what fantastic wines! Of course we had the Sparkling Malbec with our lunch and snack.


We got back to the property and had a nice evening to relax and did a tasting of some wines that were not exported. They were under the El Enemico label. We had a Chardonnay, Malbec and a Cabernet, there were all excellent. The reds were big and in your face with a finish that just lingered on forever. The Chardonnay was creamy and very nice.


We finished the day with another fantastic dinner with a sneak peek of the family private wine cellar under the house. Boy, would I like to spend some time down there with a cork screw.


After that it was dessert, relaxation and some study time in the Family Room for our upcoming test.

(There really was a test that we all took on Day 4! Everyone that passed was awarded with a certificate as a Master in High Altitude Malbec Ambassador.)