Our first full day in Mendoza took us 40 minutes south of Mendoza to Bodega Cruzat.
Everyone expects plenty of Malbec in Mendoza, but this is a winery that makes only sparkling wine – and extremely high quality traditional method sparkling wine at that. Rodrigo hosted our visit with great charm and immediately handed us a glass of fizz as we walked in at 9.30am – never too early……
A fascinating tour then proceeded as we saw at first hand disgorgement, dosage and the wines being corked and capsuled. It is quite a small winery and it was great to see a number of winery operations taking place as well as understanding the philosophy of the estate. They also make sparkling wines for other wineries so they are clearly the go to estate for top class fizz.
Upstairs in their delightful tasting room we tasted through a remarkable array of wines culminating in the Millesime which we assured had been confused with Dom Perignon in a recent blind tasting.
This was a very different start to the one people were expecting!
From Cruzat it was a 20 minute hop to Finca La Anita. This an estate owned by Origin Wine who run wineries in Chile, Argentina and Switzerland. Paula greeted us and then handed us over to winemaker Denise who took us for a little walk to see the Syrah vineyard planted in 1947 and give us an insight into the history of the estate.
Denise was wonderfully engaging and proceeded to take us through a great lineup of wines. The wines were top class. Before lunch, there was another surprise in store. With harvest having just started in the area, Denise took us into the winery where we tasted some just fermenting batches of juice – Sauvignon Blanc, Malbec and Pinot Noir. This was a great treat and one that can only be experienced a few days per year.
A fabulous outdoor lunch ensued – another superb asado with endless amounts of well cooked meats and copious quantities of wine.
The bus was somewhat quiet on the return home.
