To take full advantage of the Harvest season, Carolyn, Gilda and I spent a day outside of the office and under the abundant vines at CarinaE Viñedos & Bodega.  We have been aching to get out into the field and get our hands on the charished fruit of Mendoza, so when the owners of Carinae told us the date of their first harvest, we showed up bright and early, ready to work!

Uncorking with Brigette of Carinae

Carinae is a boutique winery that hand-crafts high quality wines in the Maipu region of Mendoza.  The owners, Brigette and Felipe Subra, are extremely hospitable, passionate, and exuberant ex-patriates from France.  They first traveled to Argentina in 1993 and fell in love with the awe-striking beauty, and the local culture and spirit of Mendoza.  It only took a few months before they realized they wanted to purchase and old winery and begin their own wine project.  Although they knew how to enjoy and drink wine, they had no previous experience in wine making.  With the incredible opportunity of fruit production in Maipu, it was important for them take full advantage of this unique terroir to create high-quality wines.  The one and only Michel Rolland consulted the Carinae team and they are now producing incredibly delicate yet complex wines in Mendoza.

On this particular day, Syrah was ready to make its move from the vine to wine and we worked from 8:00-1:00 to cut every last grape under their pergola-trained canopy.  We were each assigned a row and given bins to fill with 15 kilos of grapes.  Each worker traded a full bin for a token, which would later be used as collateral for payment the end of the work day.   Being complete amateurs at this physical labor vines, we were lapped by the pros, and collectively filled 19 bins out of all 300.  Nevertheless, Brigette appreciated our help and treated us with a wonderful lunch at her home, and of course Carinae Syrah from the previous harvest.

Gilda working hard!

We returned to Mendoza city with grape-juice stained clothes, muddy shoes, soar backs and arms.   However, we are ready to go back and clip the Malbec when it is ready in another 14 days.   This experience really showed us how labor intensive these hand-crafted wines are, and cutting the vines are just the start of the wine-making process.  The Syrah we cut yesterday will now take another 18 months of fermentation and ageing before they are released to the public.  We will have to wait patiently until the release of Carinae’s Syrah Cosecha (Harvest) 2010 that we were lucky enough to participate in!