FIRST DEMETER INSPECTION

On june 3rd we got our first biodynamic inspection with the aim to certify our vineyard DEMETER. If all goes according to plan we will become an officially recognised biodynamic vineyard in 2010.

ALPAMANTA MALBEC RESERVA 2007 READY

We have introduced our premium product of the 2007 harvest to the market. Only 3500 bottles of this 18 months new French oak stored Malbec are available, from which 800 bottles have already been sold. This wine has won the Bronce medal at this year's Argentinean Wine Awards event and a Gold Mnedal at the OIV competition "Malbec al Mundo"

PARTNERSHIP WITH NAGL & HOFFBAUR

We are proud to announce that we have signed a 3 years agreement to market the Alpamanta Estate and Reserva product line on an exclusive basis in Germany. From september onwards our wines will be available for the German wine lovers

2009 WINES

After meeting with our enologist team (Alvaro Espinoza) we are heading for the following wines

Alpamanta Estate Malbec - 1500 cases
Alpamanta Reserva Malbec- 500 cases
Alpamanta Estate Cabernet- 400 cases

We will also add a new product line without oak, which we will start selling in Q3 2009 with the following amounts and varietals at end customer price of US$ 9/bottle

Chardonnay- 1000 cases
Malbec- 1500 cases
Cabernet- 1000 cases

Please stay tuned for branding of this new wines

ALPAMANTA IN THE DANISH PRESS

Last weekend (june 7th) there was a long article on our wines in the Weekend edition of Berlinske Tidende magazine, Danish largest newspaper- if you do read Danish please look at the section of the article below:

VINEN FRA ANDES- fra Soren Frank

"Mens jeg venter på flyet mod vest senere på aftenen, harjeg turens
første møde med en vinproducent inde i Buenos Aires; Andrej Razumovsky,
som er født i Danmark af en østrigsk far med ukrainske aner
og dansk mor, men stadig taler flydende dansk, selv om han har tilbragt
det meste af sin opvækst i Østrig.
Andrej er egentlig en civilist fra lT-software-branchen, som kom til
Argentina i 2000 og blev lokalt gift, så da han for nogle år siden forlod sit
IT-job, besluttede han sammen med to venner at investere i den argentinske
vinbranche. Sammen købte og beplantede de 35 hektar for fire
år siden i Mendoza, i det sydlige Lujan de Cuyo. De tre partnere var fra
starten fast besluttet på at lave økologisk vin, så da denne dyrkningsform
trods gunstigt klima ikke ligefrem er udbredt i Argentina, trak
man den chilenske ønolog Alvaro Espinoza ind som konsulent. Spinoza
er kendt som vinmageren bag kooperativet Vifledos Organicos Emiliana
(hvis vine vi flere gange med held har anmeldt i Berlingskes lørdagsmagasin/
FRl), som er en af Sydamerikas lå helt biodynamiske producenter
og i øvrigt en af de største af slagsen overhovedet.
Første årgang for Alpamanta (som ifølge Razumovsky betyder terroir
på den originale indianske dialekt) er2007, som ikke overraskende med
så unge vinstokke generelt er til den lette side - de prøver, jeg smager
på 08, har allerede en del mere kød på kroppen. I 2009 regner Razumovsky
med at kunne lave 35.000 flasker, som med tiden kan vokse
til 100.000 - som dog stadig er en meget lille produktion i Argentina.
I dag er Alpamanta ved at blive lagt om til biodynamisk brug, hvilket
er medvirkende til, at Razumovsky helt overvejende satser på
eksport. "Det argentinske marked forstår ikke bio", som han
udtrykker det. "

TASTING NOTE FROM IRELAND

Ronan Farell, one of the great biodynamic wine experts in Ireland published his tasting notes on both Alpamanta Estate wines on the Web.

Here is what he had to say for the Malbec Estate 2007

“…soft and luscious mouthfeel; deep plummy flavours are balanced by a refreshing natural acidity, and ripe fruit tannins are supported with judicious oaking which weighs in on a long finish that’s packed full of ripe blackberry and mulberry flavours. Excellent balance throughout, and very enjoyable.”

For more please check out his full article on http://straffanwines.wordpress.com/tag/biodynamic/

ALPAMANTA IN BUENOS AIRES

Our wines are now available in Astrid y Gaston, one of the best new restaurants in Buenos Aires, specialised in Peruvian haute cuisine.

WINE TASTING IN GERMANY

On the first may weekend our wines were presented in the annual Winetasting event "Wein im Schloss" in Koblenz. Alpamanta was invited together with 7 other wineries of Argentina to represent the "guest country Argentina". Many local politicians and key opinion leaders of the German wine industry took part in this important event. We also had a chance to visit and taste some extraordinary Riesling wine producers in Ahr, Mittelrhein and Mosel, such as Weingart and Lehner

FIRST SALE AUSTRALIA

On may 15th our first sold wines were shipped to Australia- 180 bottles of Malbec Estate 2007. This wine got very good market response from our local distributor's clients. One wine sommelier described this wine as "an iron fist in a velvet glove". Let´s hope that we will get a similar good feedback from all Australian wine lovers and a good start in Down Under.

BIODYNAMIC WORKSHOP

In between the harvest our consultant Rene came over on april 14th to proceed in our biodynamic applications. Anastasia and Tatjana were highly active in the individual work tasks

HARVEST 2009- RED GRAPES

On march 30th we started harvesting the red grapes- Merlot was the first vine- and we continued on Friday, april 3rd collecting the Syrah.

In the Easter week we continued with the Syrah on Monday and Malbec on Wednesday april 8th.

After Easter we completed our harvest collecting Malbec on april 16th & 20 and Cabernet Sauvignon on april 17th th.

All family members, including my sister Tatjana and my Dad were active in harvesting, tasting and collecting the grapes.

WHITE GRAPES HARVEST

On Thursday and Friday last week we harvested for the first time ever all our Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Even though we had some differences in the quality and maduration of the grapes we could process 6000 liters of each varietal. For the white wines we have rented some space in another winery,which has good cooling system for fermentation and maceration.

BRONCE MEDAL

Our Alpamanta Reserva 2007 won the Bronce Medal at the Argentina Wine Awards last week in the Malbec US$ 20-50 category. More than 500 samples were tasted by experts from Argentina, Canada, USA, Brasil and UK.

LAUNCH OF NEW WEBSITE

As of march 1 st we launched our new Website www.alpamanta.com. This site is targeted to the industry experts and contains plenty of information on the wines, winemaking methods used and vineyard characteristics. Also there will be a seperate section on wine tasting notes from Experts and press coverage on awards and articles in Media and TV. There will also be a direct link to this Blog to be updated on all events around our project.

UPCOMING HARVEST 2009

End of this week we will start harvesting the white grapes (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay), respecting the biodynamic calendar.

2008 WINES- FINAL BLENDS

On february 19th we defined the final cuts for our 2008 product line.

Malbec Estate - 4600 liters: 95 % Malbec and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon- 100 % oak

Cabernet Sauvignon Estate - 5250 liters: 92% Cabernet, 8 % Malbec- 34% oak

Malbec Reserva- 5250 liters: 92.5% Malbec and 7.5% Cabernet- 100 % oak

On march 10th we will bottle both Alpamanta Estate varieties, which will make the ageing process 9 months ,the same as in 2007.