New photos and wine package…

I’d like to share some new photos of our hotel lodge at Algodon Wine Estates, which were taken just last week.  These are a few of my favorites:

 

 

 

The weather is pretty incredible in Argentina right now, and this is the hotel’s high season.  If you’re planning a trip to our San Rafael estate, you may be interested in our latest cooking class and tasting seminar:

Algodon Wine Estates Traditional Argentine Cooking Seminar & Wine Tasting

Learn the secrets of traditional Argentine gourmet cuisine from the Chef of our award-winning restaurant in San Rafael, Mendoza.  Algodon Wine Estates provides the ideal setting, as you experience firsthand the cooking techniques associated with the most delicious regional fare from the wine roads of Argentina.  On the “patio criollo,” our outdoor asado, clay oven and grill will serve as your canvas as you learn the art of preparation to the greatest Argentine epicurean delights.  Guided by our gifted culinary artists, this hands-on cooking seminar includes a 2-course meal that is prepared by you, using only the finest local ingredients from our own plantation and those of our neighbors.  The wines of our vineyards and winery are an essential addition to each meal at our estate, and our knowledgeable sommelier will pair your unique meal with the most memorable Algodon Wine. 

If this sounds like it’s up your alley, click here to get more information.

-Scott L. Mathis

More Algodon in the media!

Algodon Mansion’s Rent the Mansion package is currently being promoted at Affluent Page Luxury Index. “Why share a hotel when you can have the whole thing?” they ask. From their website: Affluent Page Luxury Index is a luxury consumer magazine devoted to marketing luxury brands and upscale services. Published bi-monthly, the magazine is nationally distributed to readers, with a net worth of $10 Million and up.

Algodon Mansion also appears in the October issue of Argentina’s American Express Platinum Card Magazine, which goes out to over 22,000 platinum cardholders.

DPEC Partners also gets a nice independent write-up on investing in Argentina at Nuwireinvestor.com (I’m also interviewed in the article.)

We received more great news for Algodon Wines; our Sales & Marketing Coordinator at Algodon Wine Estates has done an excellent job getting our wines in some very important wine stores in Buenos Aires and beyond. Our label will now be available in “Wine Gallery” wine shop, located at 1780 Montevideo, in Recoleta. That’s just one block from Algodon Mansion. Algodon Wine can also be found at a “Wine Gallery” wine shop at 1811 Av. Cramer, in BA’s Belgrano neighborhood.

In the press last week; Food and Wine magazine announced their list of the best restaurants in Buenos Aires. Let’s get Algodon Mansion’s Chez Nous on this list next year! In sports news; with Del Potro’s Open win a few months back, the Los Angeles Times dubs Argentina the “Cradle of Tennis Stardom”! We always seem to be in the right place at the right time nowadays! Perhaps Algodon Wine Estates' Tennis Center will be the birthplace of talent for future Grand Slam Winners under the guidance and tutelage of, say for example, José Luis Clerc. Very exciting!

--Scott Mathis

Algodon Mansion update, and wine tours

We received a nice Algodon Mansion update from Pedro Lagleyze this week. Some of the highlights include; the installation of the mirrored televisions in the bathrooms; the installation of the lightwell waterfall now that the six-story glass partition has been put up (see last week’s entry); finishing up painting in several suites; and nearly all of the kitchen equipment has been installed. Here’s a photo of the glass ceiling which will cover the outside patio in the dining room:

It looks great. We’re just waiting for the aluminum finishing for it to be complete.

The Wall Street Journal gives its readers some ideas of what to do for summer vacation. Titled “Camps for Grown Ups”, one of their recommendations is to attend a summer Wine Camp in Long Island. The camp “covers the topics of vineyard work, the terroir of Long Island, chemistry of winemaking, blending, and food and wine pairing.” This sounds like our own guided tours and tasting seminars at Algodon Wine Estates. Ours include wine descriptions, terminology and practices. People who take our tour get a detailed tutorial regarding vineyards, planting methods, irrigation, climate, and the manual labor involved in maintaining a successful winery. In fact, if the weather is nice on that day, you can even pick your own grapes. The tasting seminars always end with a platter of smoked cuts, artisan cheeses and olives.

By the way, I’d like to wish everyone here in the U.S. a very happy 4^th of July! Have a great weekend.

--Scott Mathis

Wines of Argentina

“Wines of Argentina” is a great organization whose website references many, if not all, of the notable wineries that can be found on the Argentine Wine Route (Ruta del Vino). (I’m glad ours begins with the letter “A”.) They recently organized the U.S. Master Sommelier event in Mendoza where our Cabernet Sauvignon scored high ratings and the “Best Buy” award over all the other wines which were scored. You may remember me mentioning all of this in an earlier post. For more detailed information about that event, you can check out our upcoming February newsletter here.

The Wines of Argentina website was recently updated to reflect changes in Algodon Wine Estates’ development, so if you have a moment, be sure to check their site out here. It’s clean, sleek, comprehensive, and a great advocacy website for all Argentine wineries! It’s also a must-see for anyone traveling to Mendoza because it’s so informative.

See you next week!

-Scott Mathis

More Media Mentions for Algodon!

Algodon Wine Estates had a nice mention in the December ’08 issue of Palm Springs Life in an aritcle called “Wine - Making It Personal (Dig in and taste the winemaker’s life)”. Click here to read the article. The article also mentions our wine barrel program and specificlly talks about other projects or developents that are similar to ours. The closing sentence of the article is great; “All of these options cost a lot less than the millions it takes to open a traditional winery. And…‘It’s fun.’”

We also get a fun Algodon Mansion mention in the January issue of Continental Airlines in-flight magazine. The December issue of the same magazine also features a great article by Ian Mount titled Capital Gains, which is very much worth the read- I highly recommend it.

--Scott Mathis

Pure & Untouched

Mendoza is truly an extraordinary place. You may sometimes hear it referred to as the “Napa Valley” of Argentina. Though I have a feeling that this common analogy will prove to be short lived, as Mendoza continues to make a name for itself, and more and more people begin to recognize it as its own thriving entity worthy of world-wide attention. Mendoza is responsible for more than 70% of the country's wine production, an impressive number when considering that Argentina is the 5th largest producer of wine in the world. As the world's familiarity with Argentine wine grows, international demand grows with it. The wines born of this region are world-class quality, and for the most part this place is untouched. It’s still pure. The country’s wine regions spread from the foothills of the Andes Mountains, and all the runoff water from the snowcaps and glacial melt is used for irrigation for the whole region. This is some of the purest water on the planet. And I don’t mind saying that I probably enjoy a glass of Mendoza wine a little more when I think about the incredibly pure water that grew those grapes. Mendoza has clearly experienced an explosion in popularity over the past decade and the region is ripe with new winery and real estate development. I’ve witnessed it personally; there’s obvious evidence of it everywhere down there, and it’s one of the hottest conversation topics among the locals. Northern California also saw a real estate explosion in the 1980s and the investment analogy couldn’t be clearer. Mendoza real estate prices are currently a fraction of the cost you would find in any other major wine region in the world. Vineyard estate developments are popping up across Mendoza’s landscape; and this is a trend that seems to be rapidly growing in momentum. In fact, I’ll be so bold as to say that I believe we’re one of the trailblazers of this movement. --Scott Mathis