Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
South America
349
Achaval Ferrer
The Wine Thieves
Mendoza, Argentina
A tall, beautiful Argentine woman stands
in a modern cellar room that is fragrant
with oak aromas of chocolate and vanilla.
She has in her hand a long metal object
known in the trade as a “wine thief.” With
it she extracts dark red wine from one of
the barrels, explaining that this is a Mal-
bec, one of the four grape varietals that go
into the delicious blend Achaval Ferrer
Altamira—the highest-scoring Argentine
wine in the world.
Altamira is not just any old wine, and
Achaval Ferrer is not just any old winery.
The most prestigious Argentine bodega in
the world, it occupies a modern, practical-
looking building situated close to the wide
dry river bed known as the Río Mendoza,
30 minutes south of Mendoza city.
Its founders, Santiago Achaval and
Manuel Ferrer, were two industrialists
from the Argentine cement industry who
made an alchemist-like career change
because they wanted to do something
“that didn´t involve wearing a tie.” They
persuaded Italian winemakers Roberto
Cipresso and Tiziano Siviero that the east-
ern slopes of the Argentine Andes were
the new frontier in millennial winemaking.
The result was the sensational 1999 Gran
Malbec Finca Altamira, a wine made with a
rich ratio of three plants for every bottle.
Their next step was to build a winery in
Lujan de Cuyo, with a dramatic Andean
backdrop. From there they produce wines
that continue to astound wine critics both
at home and abroad. When the Finca Alta-
mira 2003 was awarded a lofty 96 points
by
Wine Spectator,
it confirmed Achaval
Ferrer as undisputed kings of fine wine
from Argentina.
So how do they do it? Any winemaker
will tell you it starts and ends with the
grape, and Achaval Ferrer ensured they
sourced the very best. Cipresso and Sivi-
ero pay almost obsessive attention to
every detail. Attached to every wine tank,
for example, is a giant fan that blows on
the wine as it's passing through, to lower
the taste-masking alcohol content of
what's already a hot, fruity wine.
Considering the owners' background in
cement, it's interesting to note that they
have chosen to use old-fashioned con-
crete wine chambers, which went out of
fashion in Argentina in the drive to improve
winemaking methods. After replacing
them with steel tanks, many wineries
knocked doorways into their old concrete
wine chambers and started using them as
cellars and storage rooms. But in recent
years cement has made a comeback,
largely due to Cipresso's belief that the old
system had certain advantages over
steel—better heat retention, for example,
and more controlled maceration. Sud-
denly new wineries were installing con-
crete tanks in their state-of-the-art
wineries, keeping them small for better
control. The result is a richer, more con-
centrated wine.
The winery guide uses the wine thief to
inject a splash of inky wine—an almost
perfect wine, awarded 98 points by wine
critic Robert Parker, Jr.—into each visi-
tor's glass. Amazingly, Achaval Ferrer
does a barrel tasting for every curious visi-
tor who passes their door. It makes you
feel honored, privileged—like a wine
thief.
