miércoles, 1 de junio de 2011

Tempus Alba Radaelli 2007, Cabernet Sauvignon de Anchoris

Tempus Alba RADAELLI Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, solo 200 botellas de un Cabernet 100% de la zona de Anchoris, Luján de Cuyo a 50 km al sur de la ciudad de Mendoza, a una altura de 1040 msnm.
El terruño de Anchoris tiene la particularidad de presentar amplitudes térmicas y niveles de insolación que provocan una madurez tánica de excelencia. Sumado a estas condiciones naturales del terruño, el gran equilibrio de la viña de Finca La Alborada y los rendimientos limitados de 4.500 kilos por hectárea; hacen que este vino tenga una identidad única, una personalidad imponente y una elegancia notable.
Todas estas características están plasmadas en la etiqueta por nuestro gran amigo Gelson Radaelli, artista y apasionado por los buenos vinos del mundo entero. Criado en barricas de roble francés nuevo durante 18 meses y luego estibado durante un año este vino es solo para exigentes.


Tempus Alba Radaelli Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, apenas 200 garrafas de Cabernet 100% da área Anchoris, Luján de Cuyo 50 km ao sul da cidade de Mendoza, a uma altitude de 1040 metros. O terroir é único Anchoris faixas de temperatura actuais e nos níveis de luz solar causando maturidade tanino de excelência. Além dessas condições naturais do terroir, o grande equilíbrio da vinha Finca La Alborada e limitada produz 4.500 quilos por hectare, fazem deste vinho tem uma identidade única, uma personalidade imponente e notável elegância. Todas estas características se refletem no rótulo Gelson Radaelli nosso bom amigo, artista e apaixonado vinhos de todo o mundo. Envelhecido em carvalho francês novas por 18 meses e depois arrumadas em um ano este vinho é apenas exigente.


Tempus Alba Radaelli Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, only 200 bottles of Cabernet 100% of the area Anchoris, Luján de Cuyo 50 km south of the city of Mendoza at an altitude of 1040 meters. The terroir is unique Anchoris present temperature ranges and levels of sunlight causing tannin maturity of excellence. In addition to these natural conditions of the terroir, the great balance of the vineyard Finca La Alborada and yields limited 4,500 kilos per hectare, make this wine has a unique identity, an imposing personality and remarkable elegance. All these features are reflected in the label Gelson Radaelli our good friend, artist and passionate about fine wines from around the world. Aged in new French oak for 18 months and then stowed in a year this wine is only demanding.

jueves, 10 de marzo de 2011

Extreme Wine: A Certain Idea of Malbec by Mike Veseth


One of my goals in coming to Mendoza was to add to my collection of Extreme Wine stories (yes, I’m working on another book). I was thinking that the story would be the Great Malbec Boom, one of the most extreme regional wine surges in recent years.
The Malbec boom may still make my extreme wine list, but a fellow wine economist suggested a different entry: Tempus Alba's ambitious project to create an extreme wine, one that uniquely captures the essence of Malbec. Here’s the story of Vero Malbec.
One Hundred Years of Winegrowing
The Biondolillo family has been in the winegrowing business in Mendoza for more than 100 years. This means that they have lived through booms and crises, both in the wine industry and in the Argentinean economy more generally. Aldo Biondolillo, who holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota, is the third generation to make a living this way. His sons Leo and Mariano are in the family business, too, and there is a very young fifth generation in the wings (if you look closely you can see their fingerprints on the wine label in the video above). Theirs is the kind of business that necessarily looks to the long run.
When Aldo began the Tempus Alba project in the 1990’s he was looking for a way for his family to continue the winegrowing tradition well into the future. He knew that they couldn’t live on grape sales alone and becoming a bulk wine producer would be a dead end road. Commodity pricing -- of grapes or bulk wine -- often puts an emphasis on cost more than quality – and there is always some one who will charge less. Economic theory teaches that product differentiation is key to escaping the commodity trap. But how?
Aldo’s project is ambitious: to create not just another good Malbec, but a different idea of Malbec.
His method is to isolate the purest or perhaps just the best Malbec vines in the region from among the many different clones that have been planted here over the years. The goal is to identify the truest clones and, in the long run, to make them available to other wineries who could join a circle of producers making unique wines – unique in terms of the particular grape clones and then unique once again as expressions of their respective terroir.
In Malbec Veritas?

And so Aldo and family began, planting 800 different Malbec cuttings in the Mother Block. The 800 vines were narrowed in stages to 589 vines and then finally 20 by teams of experts. After 10 years of hard work, the project's first commercial Malbec was made in 2007.
It is called Vero Malbec (vero is Italian for truth, although the letters are also the initials of Aldo’s grandchildren). The Biondolillo do not claim that it is the original Malbec brought over from France or The One True Malbec. It is their version of the truth, seen from their family's particular 100 year perspective.
Everyone knows that I don’t rate wines or give tasting notes, but I found the Biondolillo’s version of the truth very appealing (as have a number of wine critics). It will be interesting to see how this wine develops over several vintages. It will be even more interesting if Aldo’s dream of a winemaking circle evolves, so that a group of Mendoza winemakers adopt the Tempus Alba clones and produce their own unique wines, perhaps along the lines of the Coro Mendocino project that I wrote about a while back. (Hmmm ... they could call it Vero Mendocino!)
Our visit to Tempus Alba’s beautiful winery in Maipu was informative in several respects. First, It was interesting to see a project that is at once so scientifically ambitious (the labs and the clones) and, through the winemakers’ circle idea, so socially progressive. Although there is a lot of plant science employed here, however, the work to narrow down the cuttings was done using nose and palate, not by sequencing grape DNA.
I accused Leo of being an empiricist in his search for true Malbec and someone in the group said, “Well of course ... he’s an economist.” Leo and I reacted in the same instant, “No, no, no!” we said in unison, shaking our fingers. We know that most economists are more comfortable with theories that with facts. (It is an old saying in economics, for example, that a theory cannot be refuted by facts – only by a more appealing theory will do the job). Wine theories are well and good, but it's what's in the bottle that really counts.
Stop and Think
I was also fascinated by the visitors to Tempus Alba. The other wineries we visited in Mendoza were fairly remote and sometimes difficult to find; most had guarded gates meant to restrict entry to those with pre-arranged tours. Tempus Alba's winery is in the Maipu valley, an area with lots of wineries and a good many backpacker hostels. The courtyard was filled with the rental bikes of the 20-somethings who travel from winery to winery as long as they can manage to stay upright. The action in the restaurant and on the deck overlooking the vineyard was young, lively and fun.
I’m not sure the 100+ per day biking visitors (a big wine tourist number by Mendoza standards) buy much wine, but they appear to have a great wine experience – almost a unique one it seems to me. The self-guided tour shows them the winery, teaches some viticultural science, and even exposes them to the family’s “dogma” or guiding principles. Then it is up to the sunny deck to taste the wines and have a bite to eat. Many will be untouched and just enjoy the good wine, food and company, but some will stop and think, and that seems to be the idea behind Tempus Alba's whole approach.
Is Tempus Alba’s Vero Malbec really unique? I won’t judge the wine, but certainly the idea is completely different and a potentially important addition to the rich mosaic of Mendoza wine.

martes, 8 de febrero de 2011

My Dream...




The first time I have ever visited Tempus Alba I thought: this is how my dream winery should be, if I ever could get to own one: it was (is) in the right place, with the proper surrounding and the best human approach.
And, of course, wines were a result of all of it. I clearly remember being in their terrace exposing my unreachable project of exporting wines of wineries from Argentina to some contacts around the world I had thanks to my living and travelling for some years as market manager of a German company, living in Italy and Spain, and enjoying visiting countries for both business and pleasure in different continents. Looking back at it, I was just explaining to them what I would like to do, without the minimum evidence of what I was able to do. They listened to me.

After some more time than a couple of years from that visit, I do make business with Tempus Alba people. We have a tight relationship that besides of making me admiring them as group, as a family team, makes me understand a secret: making a good wine has lots of topics, such as master-managing the vineyards, carefully selecting grapes, elaborating wines in every step with passion and consciousness, and protecting their image in the aggressive overpopulated markets around the world. Making an excellent, personality driven wine is all of them with the addition of excellent people. That is Tempus Alba.
Nowadays I change my dream of having some day a winery like Tempus Alba for the reality of knowing them and being a tiny, small part of their world.
(Written by Matias Gerino and a Tempus Merlot 2005)