Museo de la Vid y el Vino in Cafayate, Salta |
(March 18, 2014) – We started the day
with a tour of the Museo de la Vid y el Vino located 2
blocks off the Cafayate Plaza. It was a
delightful experience with walls filled with poetry about wine, as well as the
history of wine in the region, and exhibits of winemaking equipment. Two highlights for me were seeing the old
cement wine vats with a space underneath to light fires to insure the fermentation
continued. I had never seen this before,
and I thought it was a great idea before the invention of temperature
controlled tanks. The other highlight
was the fascinating video of the history of wine around the world. I begged to buy a copy, but they said it
wasn’t for sale.
Domingo Molina Winery – Cactus in the
Vineyard
For lunch we
headed south of town to visit Domingo
Molina Winery, located in the foothills of the Andes, not far from San
Pedro Winery. The winery building itself
is more of modern architecture, but is surrounded by vineyards filled with
cactus. Nowhere else in the world have I seen tall cactus in the vineyard, and
I found it truly fascinating. Domingo
Molina also has a cactus garden for tourists to visit.
Lunch in the Gardens of Domingo Molina Winery |
Once again
the view from the winery was breath-taking with the valley spread out below and
the towering red mountains dominating the eastern skyline. A round table with a white table cloth was
set up under the trees on the front lawn, so we could enjoy a lunch of local
meats, cheeses, salads, and empanadas, and gaze at the magnificent view while
we sipped Torrontes and tannat.
Our hosts
were brothers Osvaldo and Raphael Domingo who explained that they have two wineries
– this one for high-end wine, and the much larger Domingo Hermanos in downtown
Cafayate for mass market wine. This
location produces only estate wine with a production of around 10,000 cases, of
which they export 80%. Total vineyard
size for both wineries is 60 hectares.
Social Sustainability – Indian Village
to Give Back to the Community
What
fascinated me most about the visit to this winery (besides the great wine and
view) was the renovated Indian Village just above it, which we visited after lunch. Osvaldo explained that their father believed
in giving back to the community, so he built the village including a small
chapel for the Indians to stay in during the winters. Apparently many of them still live in the
high Andes in the summer months, hunting, gathering herbs, and sleeping
outdoors, in the ways of their ancestors.
But in the winter, they prefer to have real houses, so their father
created a village of small traditional rock houses for them.
Winemaking at Domingo Molina
Later we
toured the cellars, and again harvest was in full swing. There were four people at the sorting table,
insuring only the best malbec grapes made it into the blend. Renaldo, the winemaker, explained that they
destem, crush, and then pump the must into concrete tanks lined with
epoxy. They try to use natural yeast,
and an interesting turbo pigeage machine to punch down the cap.
Rupestre Wine from Domingo Molina |
Total
maceration time for Domingo Molina is 25 – 30 days maceration, with a
fermentation temperature of around 27C. They also allow ML to start naturally in the concrete
tanks. He explained that they prefer concrete
because it maintains a more even temperature and saves electricity. The wine is aged for around 12 months in oak
at 30 – 50% new, depending on the price point.
For Torrontes,
they generally harvest at 24 brix with 3. 7 ph, but will add 1 to 1.5 grams of
acid to achieve desired 3.2 to 3.3 ph. After destemming and crush, they let the
wine sit in tank for 8 hours with skins, then press. Commercial yeast is added,
and the wine is fermented in stainless steel at 12 degrees C for around 25 days
with no ML. When finished the wine is
racked and allowed to sit in tank for 6 months on light lees to add
texture. With the reserve wine, they may
put 5% in oak.
I tasted the
Domingo Molina Torrontes on three different occasions during my visit to Salta,
and in every case it was excellent – delicate, floral and satisfying. However, my favorite wine from this estate
was the Ruprestre 2011. It is a blend of 80% malbec, 10% merlot, and 10%
tannat with 12 months in oak, 50% new. The
wine is full-bodied with great texture and long finish. The name, “Ruprestre” is the name of a valley
nearby where they actually filled the desert scene for Star Wars.