The Wine Republic

Hey Presto! The Winemaker´s box of magic tricks...

Amanda Barnes takes a look at the winemaker's magic box of tricks.

I guess naively I always thought wine was very simple to make: pick some grapes, let them ferment and hey presto! You have wine. I figured it was probably discovered in some backwater farmland in Ancient Greece sometime when a forgetful farmer left his basket of picked grapes out in the sun too long and under the watchful eye of an imperturbable goat, the juice gradually turned into wine – a discovery to the delight of the Greek family that Sunday afternoon and to future wine drinkers around the world.

How wine was actually 'discovered' is a mystery, but what we do know is that people have been making it since at least 6000BC in Georgia. The oldest winery found so far dates back to 4000BC in Armenia and has relics of wine presses and fermentation vats. If they were that advanced 6,000 years ago, chances are the 'discovery',with my goat as the first eye witness, was long before then.

Something we perhaps neglect to realise though is that winemakers have also been adding things to their wine for a couple of thousand years too. We are often misled to think that 100 years ago, everything was 'natural' – there were no chemicals added to food or drinks and that using 'additives' is a nasty development since the chemical revolution and McDonalisation of society. In fact, winemakers have always used additives in wine – it was developed simultaneously as an integral part of winemaking. Even the Romans would throw in lots of sulphur to their wine.

One of the biggest clues that wine is not just fermented grape juice is when you see labels on bottles stating that they are vegan, or even vegetarian. What? Go back a minute. Vegan? Vegetarian? Why wouldn't it be? Animal products in wine?! This is where you read a bit further and see: 'contains milk' or 'contains eggs' which can be pretty confusing for new wine drinkers who thought they were just drinking grape juice.

24 Hours in the Life of Winemaker

Although Mendoza celebrates with fiestas and siestas during harvest, winemakers are at their busiest time of the year. Amanda Barnes writes 24 hours in the life of winemaker Brennan Firth.

April 25th: 12am

It’s midnight. The winery is much cooler, but I’m still sweating like a pig. I am running around like a bit of a wild man, monitoring tanks, tasting juice, taking temperatures and breaking down the caps. I have seven full tanks at the moment and the caps (grapes risen to the top) need breaking every five to seven hours.

On the Fly

Estancia San Pablo is gaining a reputation amongst fly fishers for excellent fishing. But is that possible in Wine Country? Charlie O’Malley finds out.

Patagonia gets all the attention when it comes to fly fishing in Argentina. Monster 30lb brown trout on the Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego and lively rainbow in the pristine waterways of the Lake District have foreign anglers struggling into their waders and tripping over their rods in a frantic effort to get down there while the fish are still biting.

Wineries

Ruca Malen

Ruca Malen Excellent food, ...

Renacer

Renacer This Chilean-owned ...

Tapiz

Great wine lodge Clu...

Terrazas de los Andes

Terrazas de los Andes The fin...

Nieto Sentiner

Nieto Senetiner Expansive...

Chandon

Chandon The original fore...

Vistalba

Pulenta Estate Cool minimal...

Luigi Bosca

Luigi Bosca Old, family...

La Azul

La Azul Simple, small produ...

Lagarde

Lagarde Owner of the olde...

What To Do

The Slippery Slope

Charlie O´Malley gets to the bottom of the skiing craze Only 75 years ago skiing was an elitist pursuit practised by a few privileged people, rich and royal, on the…

Cheer and Toasting in Las Lenas

The wine–ski package is an increasingly popular tourist deal these days. Wine-ski might seem like an oxymoron, afterall you'd have to be an oxymoron to attempt hurtling down a mountain…

Air, Land & Water: Air - Paragliding

Running straight off a mountain face into mid-air is not an easy thing to do. Well, physically it's not that taxing but mentally it's pretty strange. But in order to…

Where to go

Eat, Sleep and Say How It Is

As the saying goes: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Following this logic, when you’re in Argentina, eat, sleep and say it how it is. Below, we have…

How to Prepare a Mate

Argentines are completely addicted to one substance - mate. It may seem like a primative, strange pot of tea to many westerners but correctly making the herbal infusion is actually…

The Colors of Plaza Independencia

Amanada May spills all about the Underground art scene in Mendoza’s main square It’s impossible. You can’t visit Mendoza without passing though the largest bustling square, Plaza Independencia. Its benches,…

Wine

Christmas Wishlist

This is the season to celebrate – Christmas, New Years, long summer’s evenings… We’ve picked out some of our favourite top scoring wines from this year’s Annual Tasting to help…

Weird Science

Although living in Argentina is a beautiful life, the malbec dominated wine scene can sometimes lack variety (or vinoriety)... Amanda Barnes goes in search of some excitingly different wines here…

Divine Wine

Ever wonder what the priest drinks at church? Episcopalian minister George Woodward III reveals all. There is a lovely little town called Westerville near where I grew up in Columbus,…

Meeting Mendoza

Tango and Magic Mushrooms

Not all of us can dance, but we can certainly eat. Mal de Amores is a restaurant where a combination of good food and live tango does wonders for the…

My lunch with Michel

Nathan Frye gets lucky and meets his hero During our recent trip to Mendoza my wife and I made it a point to hit some of the more wine-savvy and…

The Art of Procrastination-Editorial

THE ART OF PROCRASTINATION Just arrived in Mendoza? Wondering what to do? First of all drag yourself from the cable TV in your hotel room and procrastinate instead in some…