Vine Connections Argentine Wine and Japanese Sake

Wind is just moving air, and most of the time you can’t even see it. But every once in a while, that notion gets turned completely on its head and if you are lucky enough to catch sight of it with your own eyes, you come to a moment of understanding that words just don’t achieve. Last week in Mendoza, I got the gift of understanding on my way to a morning hike through the desert, and it reminded me of why we visit places and don’t just read about them or hear about them from our friends. And why reading about wine is not a substitute for actually visiting wine regions.

It being July, I was enjoying a respite from the usual heat waves in the US in the form of a set of chilly, winter mornings in Mendoza. When I stepped out of my hotel to meet my friends for some “trekking” (why are foreigners’ terms for things like “nature hike” often so much cooler than ours?), something seemed amiss. It was cool outside but not the way it had been. I hopped into my friends’ car and we headed for a short drive out west of town. All of a sudden, my friends say, “Well, we may not be trekking today – Zonda”. I had heard of this “hot wind” ever since I’d come to Argentina over 10 years ago, and I’d seen the aftermath of vineyards devastated by it; I’d even just heard about it the week before from my business partner, Nick, who recently had been stopped in his tracks (well, in his car) in the Uco Valley like he was driving through one of those Florida summer afternoon drenchings that shoo people to the safety of the underpasses because they can’t see 5 feet in front of them.

But I didn’t UNDERSTAND the Zonda until I saw it. As we drove west and hiked up to a small crest in the desert, we could look back to the east and see a swiftly moving cloud of dirt and sand 20 miles long, half a mile wide and moving at a serious clip. My brain gave me that “Ahhh..that’s what they mean” that changes one’s sense of reality and orientation forever. I’d had other similar moments – my first visit to the Napa Valley, my first visit to Stellenbosch—and yes, my first visit to Mendoza.

So the next time you read about a wine, hear about a great bottle from a friend, or even enjoy a glass at your favorite restaurant, make a note to call your travel agent, because wine is all about places, and you can’t understand places until you’ve been there. Buen viaje!

Fearless leader and co-founder of Vine Connections, Nick Ramkowsky, has packed up his wife, two daughters, and two killer Jack Russell Terriers, to embark on a truly  Argentine adventure– a three-month move to Mendoza.  Stay posted on Nick’s adventures in gaucho/wine country with these periodic postings.

April 20, 2010 — We just arrived over the weekend and are getting settled in. Tasted through my first 50 tanks today of the 2010 vintage. A little soon to be exact on quality, as the wines were in various stages of primary and secondary fermentations. Overall, I liked the texture and balance of the wines. The harvest is down about 25%, due to a frost in November; followed by the Sonda (the equivalent of the Mistral) wind. It created a situation with uneven ripening.

Final grape prices are still a little unsettled; as there is more demand than supply and the growers are waiting to see what the big export companies like Catena, Norton, Trapiche are willing to pay. Catena produces Alamos and Gascon for Gallo, as well as their own brands Catena and Tilia. Catena is by far the largest exporter of quality wine from Argentina.

Call it karma, call it fate, call it serendipity. I call it a reminder.

You see my Jewish mother, who is still alive and guilt-tripping, has used this phrase for a long time, and the longer I live the truer it seems to be: “What goes around comes around.” For the longest time, I had no idea what she meant. It had something to do with being nice to people or you’d find yourself one day in a pickle and the person you had dissed would be the one you needed help from. That was only one possible manifestation, it seems.

The wine business is the perfect small circle within which to experience this concept. With the specialization and easy mobility of people who work in the wine business, from sales reps to sommeliers, you are absolutely bound to run into people way down the line from your former life, and the way that you treated them in the past is surely the way they remember you in the present. For instance, we held a company dinner recently at a restaurant not far from the office that I had not been to in a while. All I knew was that they liked our Argentine wines (not only the Malbecs, but the Bonardas, Chardonnays, etc.), and that the food was good. Well, as chance would have it, the General Manager was a fellow who used to sell wine to me back when I owned a retail wine company, and now he was buying wine FROM me! While we didn’t consider him the sharpest wine salesman we knew, we used to treat him with proper respect, humility, and friendliness when many accounts he called on weren’t nearly so kind (retail wine buyers can be tough cookies). And as I walked in the door 15 years later, he gave me a beaming smile, a firm handshake, asked how was my old business partner, and generally made me feel like I was a long-lost friend. This is not the normal seller-buyer relationship these days, and it made me feel great. On top of that, he made sure our group felt like we were the most important people ever to dine at his place.

And yesterday, I took my wife and daughter to a new, local sushi restaurant called Tsukiji in Mill Valley (ok, I had to plug this one by name because the food is great and new restaurants always need help staying in business). The owners, Roy & Chanel, used to own a different place 10 minutes (and 11 years) away which we went frequently when my daughter was still in a baby carrier. He still remembers our family and without even a mention, he sent out a free dish of our favorite item from the old restaurant (albacore tataki with crispy onions and daikon). To boot, we were able to order off the wine list a bottle of crisp, aromatic Crios Torrontes, one of our Vine Connections imports from Argentina. Good karma doesn’t taste better than that.

I don’t know exactly what to call this effect, and maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised. But a few words of wisdom from my Mom and me to you younger folks, “What goes around comes around”, so don’t burn your bridges, treat others the way you want to be treated, and expect to see people you know come back around the horn someday, because the earth is still very round.