The Uco Valley was our destination for Thursday. This area, about 90 minutes south of Mendoza, has become extremely important in the past 25 years and there is a huge diversity of terroirs depending on the elevation of the vineyards. A number of top wineries source fruit from the Uco.
Our first stop was to a winery that we visited in 2011 and 2015 – Bodega Azul. This is quite a pioneering winery as the land in the Uco valley was bought by the original owner in the 1950’s for a few dollars per hectare in order to plant fruit trees. Part of the estate was converted to vineyards with the next generation and now the family is sitting on a goldmine as land prices have soared into the stratosphere.
Azul has developed its onsite restaurant which is hugely popular. We weren’t staying for lunch so just did a brief visit, tasted through a selection a wines and visited the winery.
From Azul, it was a 30 minute up a variety of dirt tracks to bodega Zorzal. This is a relatively new winery set up in 2008 with the aim of grabbing some of the Uco Valley action. Emiliano hosted our visit and he was absolutely brilliant.
Harvest was in full swing so we saw grapes arriving, the pumps and press in action and met Juanpi – one of the winemakers. You can feel the buzz in the winery at times like this. Emiliano then took us through a terrific presentation of the Uco Valley, focussing on the terroir, altitude, water rights and wind flow. It brought the region to life and was highly instructive.
From Powerpoint to lunch – we sat outside with great views of the Andes and tucked into a delicious asado and tasted a range of terrific wines throughout lunch. Outstanding Chardonnay, two versions of Pinot Noir – one matured in a concrete egg, the other made in a Solera style, a Malbec blend and their top icon Barbieri Malbec.
It was a truly outstanding visit.
