WINERY- FINCA IN UGARTECHE

SAUVIGNON BLANC

2011-02-20T11:04:00.001-08:00

lots of rain & atypical cold weather in Mendoza is delaying Sauvignon Blanc harvest, on Monday we will know more on the technical data & ripening process

SAUVIGNON BLANC TECHNICAL DATA

2011-02-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

First harvest preparations underway. Today we got our first lab analysis data for our Sauvignon Blanc

Brix- 14,4
Sugar 134
Acidity 11,2
PH 3,01
Alcohol- 7,8

DEMETER Certificate

2010-07-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

Conscious about the nature and enviroment Alpamanta started planting the wines without using any chemicals o fungicides. As an additional step and in order to be more proactive for creating a own Terroir the winery started to work with BD applications and compost on the whole vineyard since 2008 and are today the only biodynamic DEMETER certified vineyard in Mendoza.
DEMETER is the official international certification for biodynamic agricultural products. An incentive controlling process insures strict compliance with the International Demeter Production and Processing Standards, as well as applicable organic regulation in the various countries.

Cement Tanks

2010-07-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

Since April 2010 Alpamanta is one of the first Argentinean wineries using special cement tanks, produced in Nomblot, France. These tanks provide a new innovative process of fermentation in a biodynamic way. They only contain natural materials which favors an internal movement of the wine without chemical maipulation. Furthermore, they garuntee low energy consumption throughout excellent temperature retention.

NEW WINE IN DOWN UNDER

2010-04-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

Our importers in Australia made their third order in 12 months and for the first time the Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Malbec 07, which won the Bronce Medal earlier this year at the Argentinean Wine Awards, will be introduced to the high end restaurant market in Down Under.

NEW SHIPMENT TO US

2010-04-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

We will process our largest order so far with 5 pallets of the just recently bottled Natal product line. Over the next months there will be a total of 7 wines from 3 vintages in more than 25 states in the USA.

HARVEST 2010

2010-04-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

On april 23 rd we harvested our last grapes, in total 182.000 kgs of 8 different white and red garpe varietes from our 90 acres vineyard in Ugarteche. On Saturday we then had our classical End of harvest asado with lots of meat at the Quincho

Article in Vinotheque Magazine, Japan

2010-04-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

A four page article on Biodynamic practices in Argentina was published this month in Japan's most prestigeous wine magazine Vinotheque with several references and photographs from our vineyard.

2009 TOP PREMIUM BLENDS

2010-04-06T17:42:00.000-07:00

After tasting all our 07,08 and 09 vintages we defined our final blends for our Estate and Reserva 2009 wines

TASTING THE FIRST 2010 WINES

2010-04-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

On april 1st we tasted all our upcoming 2010 wines together with Alvaro. While the red wines & Chardonnay have still not finalized fermentation, the Sauvignon Blanc is ready and looks very promissing

RED GRAPES HARVEST

2010-04-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

On Easter week we started to harvest our Grapes, starting with Merlot, Petit Verdot and Syrah. Next week we will continue with our premium grapes Malbec and finalise the week after with Cabernet Sauvignon.

VISIT OF DANISH TV

2010-04-06T17:13:00.000-07:00

Niels & Jan from DRTV visited us for the day to broadcast a program on "Danish wineproducers abroad".

NATAL 2009 RED WINES READY

2010-04-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

We bottled our Natal Malbec (18000 units) and Cabernet (12000) last week. All of these fresh wines will soon hit the US market

WINEMAKERS DINNER AT NOMA

2010-04-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

On march 25th our wines were presented to 50 guests at one of world's top restaurants in Copenhagen, Denmark. Our family was represented by Tommer, Anne, Stine & Vibe and our friends by Georgina & Thomas

Stand at Prowein

2010-04-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

We had for the first time a stand on one of the major wine fairs. Together with several outstanding wine producers from the world we had our 2007 wines presented at Nagel & Hoffbaur, our German importer in hall 6

Article in Magazyn Wino in Poland

2010-03-26T05:53:00.000-07:00

Alpamanta was covered by the most important Polish wine magazine. If you happen to read Polish, please check out www.magazywino.pl/pl/52_monografie/142_regiony_winiarskie/298_argentyna/299_argentyna_nie_tylko_malbec/598_alpamanta.html

GUESTS from HUNGARY

2010-03-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

Silvia and Tomas Kis, wine importers from Budapest came with their 11 month old babygirl and had a lovely dinner (asado of course) with our children at our terrace in Palermo Viejo. We tasted Chardonnay Natal 09, Malbec Estate 08, Malbec Reserva 07 and finished the evening with Malbec Reserva 08.

CHARDONNAY HARVEST

2010-03-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we started harvesting our Chardonnay grapes even though we got some rain interruption on Friday morning, complying with the BD calendar.

CHARDONNAY- PREPARING HARVEST

2010-03-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

We are getting closer to our second and last white grapes harvest 2010

The data as of march 4th

Brix- 23.6 %
Acidity- 6,55
Sugar- 236 gr/l
PH- 3,56
Alcohol- 14

CHARDONNAY GRAPES

2010-03-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Selecting the finest grapes and crushing to analyse all relevant data for the perfect harvest timing

CHARDONNAY- UPCOMING HARVEST

2010-03-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

We are getting ready to harvest our second white grape Chardonnay. The latest data as of today:

Brix- 23

Acidity- 6,3

Sugar- 229

PH- 3,62

Alcohol- 13,7

SAUVIGNON BLANC 2010- FACTS

2010-03-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

These are the first data we got from our 1 week old Sauvignon Blanc white wine, harvested on february 19th:

Brix- 22,1
Sugar - 218,9
Acidity -6,9
PH- 3,26
Alcohol- 12,8-13,2

WINES AVAILABLE IN THE UK

2010-03-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

From march 2010 all our 2007 wines are available for sale in the UK.
Matthew Jukes, wine correspondent for Daily Mail and buyer for Bibendum restaurant in London made the following review on Alpamanta 07 wines in the Quintessentially Wine, the world's foremost exclusive private members wine club:
"They are the classiest Argentinean reds I have ever tasted. I adore all 3 wines, as they are not too oaked and not too alcoholic. The power and length are completely in check and it is the balance above all which is utterly perfect. I perhaps sound surprised- and I am. There is a level of skill and confidence here which I occassionaly see in the very top Californian reds and also in Australia's finest, but I have never sensed this level of composure and talent in Chile or Argentina."

NEW SHIPMENT TO US

2010-03-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

Two pallets were sent to Virgina, including all our 2007 wines and for the first time Estate Malbec 2008 and Natal Chardonnay 2009. Our importer WH importer plans to sell these wine in more than 33 states

ALPAMANTA ESTATE CABERNET 2007- BRONCE MEDAL AT AWA 2010

2010-03-01T04:13:00.000-08:00

We won our first award with the Alpamanta Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 at the annual wine competition organised by Wines of Argentina

Tanzer tasting notes

2010-01-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

Stephen Tanzer just published his yearly review on the Argentinean wines and selected 2 of our wines as top of his list this year.

Alpamanta Estate Malbec 2008- Bright medium ruby, Dark fruits, smoked meat, nutty oak, coffee and a whiff of truffle on the slightly porty nose. Fat and sweet with flavours of coffee, truffle and game lifted by sound acidity. Not exactly a subtle style but not cooked. The sweet, pliant fruit lingers nicely on the back end, where the tannins are supple and ripe.

Alpamanta Reserva Malbec 2007- Full medium ruby. Complex aromas of plum, currant, smoke, coffee, chocolate and truffle.

VISIT FROM DENMARK

2009-12-15T08:33:00.001-08:00

My importer from Denmark Christian Philipson came to visit our vineyard last week. Check out some of the pics he just sent me

ALPAMANTA WINES in BUENOS AIRES

2009-12-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

From December there are 2 new venues in Buenos Aires offering our wines. Faena Hotel- Alpamanta Reserva Malbec 2007 and Parrilla Don Julio- Alpamanta Estate Malbec 2008

2009 FINAL BLENDS READY

2009-12-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

On Thursday we made the final blends for our 2009 red wines- Alpamanta Reserva Malbec 2009, Alpamanta Estate Malbec 2009, Alpamanta Natal Malbec 2009 and Alpamanta Natal Cabernet Sauvignon 2009. Both Natal wines (without oak) will be bottled in february 2010, while the Estate in march/april before the 2010 harvest. We made an intense wine tasting for all wines with Alvaro & the team.

ALPAMANTA IN UK & US

2009-11-20T11:19:00.000-08:00

Great news - we will soon enter two new markets, so we are now exporting to 6 countries !

VINANDINO 2009- 3 MEDALS

2009-11-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

Our Alpamanta wines scored excellent results in the most important South American blind tasting OIV event. From 850 competing wines from 15 countries and an international jury composed by 35 experts Alpamanta won 1 Gold (Malbec Estate 2007) and 2 Silver (Malbec Estate 2008 & Mabec Reserva 2007) medals.

On november 24 th there will be an Awards wining event in Buenos Aires.

ANOTHER BIODYNAMIC WORKSHOP

2009-11-13T06:10:00.000-08:00

Last week we finalized our biofertilizer and stored the new preparations 500, 501 & 504. Also we are now fighting the ants with some product from Brazil, dry oranges and a home made grilled ant recipee from the vineyard

CHARDONNAY 2009 READY

2009-10-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

Our Alpamanta Natal Chardonnay 2009 is finally ready- we will bottle this wine next week and calculate to get a total of 13.000 bottles

WINES IN GERMANY

2009-10-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Alpamanta Estate Malbec & Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 arrived in Aachen today and our importer Nagel & Hoffbaur will be introducing both wines throughout Germany over the next few weeks

WINES TO CANADA

2009-10-05T05:23:00.000-07:00

First wines in the Americas !
This week we will make our first shipment to British Columbia and Alberta in Western Canada. Let´s see how the Alpamanta Estate Malbec 2007 sells in this part of the world

SILVER MEDAL AT MUNDUSVINI

2009-09-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

Alpamanta Estate Malbec 2007 was awarded among 6000 participating wines with the Silver Medal at Mundusvini 2009- the most important German wine competition. The Alpamanta Estate 2007 wines will be arriving to Germany this week and be launched on the German market next month.

APPLICATION OF BIODYNAMIC COMPONENTS ON VINEYARD

2009-09-15T03:52:00.000-07:00

We prepared and applied both Fladen and Component 500 on the entire vines, thanks to the help of our Austrian trainee Stefan and our vineyard team.

BIODYNAMIC PASTE FOR TREES

2009-09-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

To heal our olive and fruit trees from the rabbit bites and hail damages our team prepared a special recipe, called "Biodynamische Paste", which was brushed on all our

vineyard

BIODYNAMIC SEEDING

2009-09-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

On a bitter cold winter day we started with our new little biodynamic park- Kamille, Brennessel, Lowenzahn, Baldrian seeds, all essential plants for our applications

BEST VALUES FROM ARGENTINA- PARKER 87 POINTS

2009-09-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

Our first vintage wine Alpamanta Estate Malbec 2007 was selected together with 253 other wines as best values from Argentina (under $25 retail price) in the Wine Advocate.

These are the tasting notes from Jay Miller, who tasted the wine back in february 09:

"The 2007 Estate Malbec was produced from organically grown grapes. For the past year, the estate has been farming biodynamically. The wine was fermented with native yeasts and raised in 60% new French oak and 40% in tank.
Purple in color, the nose reveal earth notes, spice box, and black cherry. On the palate the wine is medium-bodied with some elegance and tasty flavors but could use more depth and concentration. Drink it over the next 6 years. "

AUSTRALIA- SECOND ORDER

2009-09-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

This week we are shipping more Malbec Estate 2007 wines to our customer in Perth. This is the second order within 6 months !!

WINE LABELED & SHIPPED TO EUROPE

2009-08-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

This week we shipped 5 pallets to Denmark and Germany, where we will start selling in september. During 2 days we were labeling and packing our wines and prepared also the cases for our upcoming shipment to Australia and Canada.

NEW PARTNER IN DENMARK

2009-08-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

In july we signed a one year marketing agreement with the Danish importer Philipsonwine, which will represent us in Denmark. Our wines, including the Malbec Reserva 2007 will be shipped in the next few weeks and introduced in september

LARSSON TASTING- RESULTS

2009-08-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Sommelier World Champion 2007 Andreas Larsson published his Argentinean wine tasting results at VINEXPO in Bordeaux last june. Out of almost 200 wines tasted blind, Alpamanta Reserva Malbec 2007 was awarded the best Premium Malbec of the 2007 vintage and one of the 12 best overall.
Also the Estate Malbec 2007 got excellent results and was rated as one of the best Malbecs in its category:

2007 - ALPAMANTA RESERVA MALBEC -MENDOZA
Wild dark berries, some hints of truffle and smoke, very structured and
concentrated palate, dark fruit, silky tannins and layers of complex flavours, very long finish,
really good potential, should age very well.

2007 - ALPAMANTA ESTATE MALBEC- LUJAN DE CUYO
Pure and fruity nose, some floral hints and freshly crushed berries, well balanced
with a good freshness and crunchy dark fruit, fairly long.

For more details on all tasting results, please check out http://www.winesofargentina.org/tasted-larsson/WINE%20GUIDE%20argentina.pdf

FIRST DEMETER INSPECTION

2009-06-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T13:05:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-27T11:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-03T07:42:00.001-08:00

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

2008 WINES- FINAL BLENDS

2009-03-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

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.

ALPAMANTA RESERVA 2007 BOTTLEING

2009-02-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

On january 26th we bottled 3450 bottles of our top premium 2007 wine, which has been ageing 18 months in new French oak. This wine will now rest some 6 months in bottle and introduced to the market in Q3 2009. We will present this wine to the annual Argentina Wine Awards to be held end february in Mendoza to see if we can repeat the success of november 2008, where we obtained the Gold Medal at "Mabec al Mundo"

AUSTRIAN TV

2009-02-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

On january 25 th the Austrian TV visited our vineyard. During 2 days Esther-Marie and her cameraman filmed several tasks and spots of our vines and personell.

Last Monday the 3 minute story was broadcasted in the afternoon's news program "Heute in Oesterreich". Please check out the fifth story in the news block for all details http://ondemand.orf.at/news/player.php?id=hioe&day=2009-02-02

FIRST SHIPMENT TO AUSTRALIA

2009-01-20T04:01:00.000-08:00

Today our first cases were sent to Australia, where several wine tasting events will take place with most of the clients of our distributor Jed Wines. We will soon learn how our wines will impact in Down Under

89 points from Stephen Tanzer

2009-01-20T03:55:00.000-08:00

On january 15th the US wine journalist Steve Tanzer published his annual review of wines from Argentina. 600 wines were tasted and we got an excellent result for our Malbec.

These are the exact words of Tanzer`s tasting notes, which can be read in his bimonthly Wine edition (ST International Wine Cellar):

2007 Alpamanta Estate Malbec Mendoza
Good deep ruby. Musky, wild aromas of black raspberry, truffle and game, plus hints of white fruits and marzipan; I would have picked this blind as a syrah. Pliant but firm on the palate, with a juicy quality and good spicy lift to the sweet fruit flavors. Sexy, savory wine with no jammy sweetness.

Also recommended: 2007 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Mendoza (86).

VISITORS FROM US- ASADO at VINEYARD

2008-12-22T10:12:00.000-08:00

On december 12th two Frenchmen from a well known importer in Washington DC and his collegue from South Africa visited our vineyard and tasted both our 2007 and 2008 wines. We had a traditional asado and Mario made a biodynamic presentation, showing our components.

2008 WINES- UPDATE

2008-12-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

Following last visit and tastings of Alvaro we are heading for an excellent Malbec year again, which will surpass the good quality of 2007. The colour is very intense, violet. In the nose you can percieve blackberry, plumb and some earthy herbs aroma. In the mouth firm tanins and character. In January we will define the final blends in order to bottle the Alpamanta Estate 2008 product line.

The Cabernet Sauvignon, due to the early frost in april lacks a bid of maturity, but has also some interesting red fruit and herbs aromas, good body and solid ending in the palate

ALPAMANTA RESERVA 2007- READY

2008-12-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

Our top premium 2007 wine, the Malbec Reserva 2007 is at its peak and will be bottled end of january 2009. Our winemaker Alvaro Espinoza has put together the wine tasting notes for this wine, which won the Gold Medal at last month's Malbec al Mundo, obtaining 94 points.

" Color intenso con tinte ciruela, aroma intenso a fruta negra, ciruela, madera fina, cedro, con complejidad y carácter, elegante. En boca de cuerpo medio mas con buen volumen, largo, de taninos maduros, con balance, elegante "

AUSTRALIA- OUR NEXT MARKET

2008-12-19T13:09:00.000-08:00

We have signed an Agreement with Jed Wines to start selling our Alpamanta Estate wines in Down Under. First samples will be shipped to Australia at the end of december

ALPAMANTA RESERVA 2007- MEDALLA DE ORO

2008-11-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

At the biannual international Malbec competition "Malbec al Mundo", organised by the OIV, we got an important award. Out of 300 participating Malbec wines from the whole world our top premium wine from 2007 (Alpamanta Malbec Reserva 2007) got the sixth highest points in a blind tasting held last week. This is an extraordinary reward for our first vintage, as it also represents the highest ranked Malbec from all 2007 wines presented at the competition.

BIODYNAMIC DAYS- PART 5

2008-10-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

Our Fladen, which is fermenting in a barrel was still too humid to be taken out- we still have to wait and see how it develops over the next few months. On the other hand one of our 3 piles of kompost is already ready to be used for our vineyard.

BIODYNAMIC DAYS- PART 4

2008-10-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

As a fresh copound we also prepared quartz powder blended with rainwater and filled into a dry cow horn- we burried the 2 horns close to the main entrance, where we are going to prepare the biodynamic garden

BIODYNAMIC DAYS- PART 3

2008-10-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Our third compound was squeezed oak stored in a deer's vagina on the back of a fresh cow head. After 4 months it was amazing to see how fresh and well maintained the compound turned out to be - it looked like a real organ.

BIODYNAMIC DAYS- PART 2

2008-10-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

Our second compound was made out of squashed camomile filled in tripes, which my cousines Stine and Vibe made back in june. We made 2 sorts of quality to see the difference. The aroma of the premium was significantly more intense

BIODYNAMIC DAYS- PART 1

2008-10-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Last week we all met on the vineyard to burry out the biodynamic compounds we made in june. For the first time we collected own made compost and compound 501 and 504- hopefully we will already see some positive results at our 2009 harvest. In this gallery you see how we got the materials out of the 16 burried cow horns.

FIRST SALE TO DENMARK

2008-09-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

The big day arrived- our first sale of Alpmanta Estate Wines was made to Skaelskoer in Denmark. My Mum, who passed away last year would have really been proud and happy.

Til dej min kaere Mor !!

We took the bottles, which have been stored now in bottles for 5 months and with the help of 6 girls cleaned them, checked the quality of each bottle and labeled them accordingly. Afterwards they were stored into 65 cases and put into a pallet. On august 22 in the evening a truck came along and took them tobe loaded to the long trip from Mendoza to Sjaeland.

PRUNING SEASON

2008-09-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

As winter falls into this part of the world and the vines enjoy their well deserved rest our workers started pruning the 30 hectares of vines and bundle them together. The winter turns out to be very mild, so we could accomplish all these works by end of july and the could also find time to make more compost

ALPAMANTA- BRAND

2008-09-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

Finally we got the green light to use Alpamanta as our brand for our wines. This Quechuan, local Indian word stands for "Love to Earth" or in wine terms "Terroir". We will use this to launch our 2007 wines- Alpamanta Estate Malbec 2007 and Cabernet Sauvignon 2007. We will have organic certification for the EU and for the US in 2008.

VISITING THE VINEYARD ON LABOUR DAY

2008-09-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

We decided to spend the long weekend en famille, enjoying warm autumn days at the vineyard

BECOMING BIODYNAMIC

2008-09-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

After our successful first harvest we started applying our first real biodynamic components on the vineyard. My cousins from Denmark (Vibe & Stine) came all the way to visit the vineyard and helped us with the individual tasks- making compost, spraying component 504 to the vineyard and preparing Fladen and other homeopatic components (Horns, fresh cow head etc, ). For 2 days we were busy and had a lot of fun

MALBEC PREMIUM & CABERNET

2008-04-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday april 23rd we harvested the last grapes from Ojo de Vino, including 10.000 kgs of high quality Malbec and 18.000 kg of Cabernet sauvignon. Even though the grapes were already on the edge of dehydration, due to the frost of last week, we got very good concentration and excellent colour. Therefore the maceration process will be much shorter than last year and we will soon start fermentation.

HARVEST COMPLETED ON VINEYARD

2008-04-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday april 19th we finalized harvesting the red grapes on our vineyard. We got another 6000 kgs of Syrah, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec. At the end of the day we transported the ripened grapes to Santos Bodega, where we will be processing 4.000 liters of this very special blend from this first vintage.

The technical details:

Brix- 28
Acidity- 4.15
PH- 4.03
Alc.- 16.2

We will make some corrections to lower alcohol levels and PH level

PROCESSING THE GRAPES- PART 4

2008-04-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

The final step was to bring the metal container to the winetank. For this particular work and to act with gravity into place a small vehicle lifted the container 5 meters and 2 employees made sure they were droped in the right winetank.

PROCESSING THE GRAPES- PART 3

2008-04-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

At the end of the belt a big metal basket colected the clean grapes and one worker was permanently controling that the container was filled up accordingly

PROCESSING THE GRAPES- PART 2

2008-04-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

Four girls were standing on the belt to check if all grapes were properly seperated from the machine

PROCESSING THE GRAPES- PART 1

2008-04-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

On Friday april 18th at 8pm we started processing the 12.000 kgs of Malbec grapes from our vineyard. The different processes included:

1. seperating the leaves from the grapes (manual work)- see pics

2. seperating the branches from the grapes (machine)

3. collecting the clean grapes

4. pouring the grapes into the winetank

The entire work was completed at 10.30 pm

TRANSPORTING GRAPES TO WINERY

2008-04-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

Once we finalized the Malbec harvest on Friday april 18 th we sent 3 trucks to the Decero winery to get the grapes processed the same night.

HARVEST DAY

2008-04-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

On Thursday april 17th in the afternoon it finally happened. We started harvesting the Malbec grapes with a total of 25 people for 1.5 days and got a total of 12.000 kgs, well below of the expected 18.000 kgs. Due to the frost on Monday and strong humidity in Februray (it rained in 4 weeks as much as the entire year) we had less and more concentrated grapes. All vineyard producers of the region had the same challenge to face. It is a fact that the 2008 vintage in the Mendoza region will bring much less wine production than average

HARVEST 2008- PRELIMINARY DATES

2008-04-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

After a phantastic week of sunshine and temperatures well above 20C, on Monday april 14 we woke up with temperatures below 0 C. As a result we decided to harvest most of the grapes between Tuesday and Sunday this week.

Our tentative dates:

april 15- 15.000 kgs Malbec - Ojo de Vino (being used for organic Reserva)
april 16- 10.000 kgs Malbec- Ojo de Vino (best grapes for organic Premium)
april 17- 18: 20.000 kgs Malbec- own vineyard
april 19-20: 15.000 kgs other red grapes own vineyard
next week: 18.000 kgs Cabernet Sauvignon- Ojo de Vino (Reserva)

HARVEST 2008- LAST RIPE CONTROL

2008-04-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

Last week we walked through the vineyards to watch the latest developments on the grapes to decide on the best conditions for harvesting our grapes. According to our enologist and agronomist we will most likely pick up our grapes on the week of april 14 (Syrah & Malbec) and the week after (Cabernet), depending on the climatic conditions. On our vineyard there will be approx 18.000 kgs of Malbec and 15.000 kgs of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Merlot.

The technical details for april 07, 2008:

Malbec:
º BRIX- 26
ACIDITY- 4.9
PH- 3.72
SUGAR- 262.3
ALC. POTENCIAL- 15.4

Syrah:
º BRIX- 26.4
ACIDITY- 3.52
PH-3.85
SUGAR- 266.8
ALC. POTENTIAL- 15.7

Cabernet Sauvignon:

º BRIX- 23.6
ACIDITY- 5.85
PH- 3.34
SUGAR- 236
ALC. POTENTIAL- 14

BOTTLEING OUR FIRST WINES- Part 5

2008-03-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Once the bottles were filled in the baskets we transported them to the storage room. For each basket it took us approx. 15 minutes to have it full, so we had good 3 hours till we completed the Cabernet sauvignon. During this process we had 2 specialists monitoring the data on oxigen, cork length, So2 etc....

BOTTLEING OUR FIRST WINES- Part 4

2008-03-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

Finally at 10.55 am the first bottles came down the roller and were immediately placed in the baskets by 6 youngsters- what an exciting moment !!

BOTTLEING OUR FIRST WINES- Part 3

2008-03-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

We brought the bottles and corks to the lorry and started to pump the first liters of Cabernet through the filter. To avoid too much oxigen and the best quality of wine in the bottles the first 200 liters were seperated accordingly and disposed. Once the experts gave the green light we were ready to start.

BOTTLEING OUR FIRST WINES- Part 2

2008-03-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

Once the baskets arrived to the winery we started with the preparations for the bottleing process. We contracted a specialised company which came with their own truck and started cleaning the instruments. We also decided to use new to ensure the maximum higiene in the process

BOTTLEING OUR FIRST WINES- Part 1

2008-03-17T13:09:00.000-07:00

On march 10th we had a very important milestone in our project. For the first time we bottled the wines we had been storing in tanks and barrels through the last 11 months. As a result we got 7500 bottles of Cabernet and 5000 bottles of Malbec. We started the morning collecting the baskets from a warehouse and brought them with a truck to the Winery.

REDS- RIPENING

2008-03-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

The reds are still ripening and most of them will not be harvested before april. With our enologist we have decided to use the Syrah (pictures 1-2), Cabernet Sauvignon (3-4) and Malbec (5-6) as varieties for our vintage 2008

WHITE GRAPES READY TO HARVEST

2008-03-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

We are getting close to start the first harvest on our vineyard. Our white grapes will be collected by our workers during the next 2 weeks. While we have a small amount of Sauvignon Blanc (pictures 3-4), which is still very weak, the Chardonnay (pictures 1-2) has developed very well.

BIODYNAMIC- FILLING THE PULVERIZER

2008-03-03T08:25:00.000-08:00

After completing the blending part Rocio, the biodynamic consultant, who supervised the works, had a final look on the achieved results before we poured the bio dynamised liquid into our fertilizer machine. The rest of the day the tractor drove through 5 hectares and sprayed the vineyard with this homeopathic solution. The same exercise we repeated on Sunday and Monday in order to get the entire vineyard slowly converted into a biodynamic land.

BIODYNAMIC - PREPARING THE APPLICATION

2008-03-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, march 1st, our entire staff woke up at 4 am to get started with mixing the component 501 in 3 barrels filled with rainwater. For 2 hours before sunrise 3 strong young men were working hard 1 meter above the ground on top of a historic plough machine to get this component blended with long wooden sticks.

BECOMING BIODYNAMIC

2008-02-29T13:16:00.000-08:00

The time has come and we are starting with our first biodynamic excercise on the vineyard. We have brought 3 barrels (thanks to Aurelio and Mario) and collected rain water inside. Tomorrow at sunrise we will add component number 501 (quartz cristal stored for 3 months in cow horns), which will be manually mixed for 2 hours. After that exercise we will spray this liquid onto 10 hectares of the vineyard. The same procedure we will repeat on Sunday morning. The goal of this practice is homeopatic to give the plants better resistance and a healthier growth to optimise sun light energy. At this time of the year several weeks before the harvest the first biodynamic practice needs to be applied.

FINAL BLENDING- VINTAGE 2007

2008-02-26T12:33:00.000-08:00

On february 21 st we took the final decisions with Alvaro Espinoza, our winemaker, before we initiate the botlleing process of our Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, scheduled for march 6 th. In total we will have 7500 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and 5333 bottles of Malbec. These wines will rest in the bottles for 2-3 months and will be introduced to the market in may 2008. Our Premium Malbec (2000 liters) will still remain for another 4-5 months in French oak and launched in october 2008.