A few nights ago I found myself at a family-owned estancia (ranch) folded into the foothills of the Andes. As tiny flickers of starlight poked through the cloudy night, a man in a navy blue beret reached for his guitar. Three hours later we realized that the lone candle stick had disappeared into a puddle of wax, the wine had run out, and the...
Mendoza´s Annual Vendimia Festival is cause for hundreds of thousands of travelers and wine lovers worldwide to make their pilgrimage to this humble Andean town, for one purpose only – to celebrate the harvest of the grapes. In homage to the tiny fruit that gave life to what is now a booming wine industry, Mendoza province plays host to a festival that runs from...
In case you haven´t already heard through the grapevine, every year Mendoza, Argentina hosts one very special extended homage to the tiny fruit that everyone loves. In simple terms, Vendimia is the celebration of the grape harvest. It takes place over several months, as each of the 18 departments in Mendoza province host fiestas and select their beauty queens who will later compete for...
In the Tupungato region of Uco Valley, along the popular Ruta 98 sits a boutique winery, so humbly nestled into the landscape that you´d miss it if you weren´t paying attention. In a neighborhood of giants – Andeluna Winery, Salentein, and Jean Bousquet – La Azul is the David to their Goliath. With a cement-walled winery roughly the size of a spacious garage, it...
When it comes to wine looks, it´s usually the label that gets all the glory. But what about the bottle itself? Slender, tall, short, round – wine bottle shape is the culmination of many things: Culture, function & fashion. Most food packaging strategy comes down to a few simple principles: keep it safe, cost-effective and efficient to pack & ship. Wine bottles fail in...