Viñas Maipu    

Maipu is one of two sections in the Central District of Mendoza. This Central District encompasses some of Mendoza’s finest vineyards around the other section, Lujan de Cuyo south of the city. There is large acreage of lesser vineyards east of the city at lower elevations. Maipu is in the center of these lesser vineyards. You can’t sugar-coat geography.

The Maipu vineyard is vast. Widely-spaced vines on relatively rich soil extend as far as the eye can see. This is not the terroir for great wine. However it is a terroir that can produce large quantities of good wine at incredibly low prices. Vineyards range in altitude from 640 to 800 metres (2100 - 2625 feet) above sea level. Vineyards in the Eastern District, Mendoza’s (with the Northern District) least favored, are lower still.

Carlos Aranda Garcia

Carlos Aranda owns Viña Maipu. He is my kind of guy, perhaps the only person I know as obsessed as I am with wine value. In fact, he takes this obsession to new extremes.

By Argentine standards this is only a medium-sized Bodega. By any other standards it is a large winery. Carlos owns 500 acres of vines. He farms another 300 under contract and has access to grapes from 1000 more should demand exceed supply.

If Carlos was to bottle everything he vinifies in his old, bare-bones but well-maintained winery, production would be 300,000 cases. In fact, over half is still sold in bulk, although a lot less now than before. There have been huge changes here since my first visit a year ago. In the first 12 months, HPS has sold almost 20,000 cases of Carlos’ wines. This extra cash flow has allowed Carlos to start an amazing range of new projects, too many for HPS to absorb at one time. Some will be launched this year. Others will follow as demand grows.

The Wines

Viña Antigua red is at the heart of this winery. A 50/50 blend of Sangiovese and Bonarda, it is fairly light in body. However it is full of personality and flavor, an intriguing wine of surprising subtlety. This year it is joined by Viña Antigua white, a blend of equal parts of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Ugni Blanc. Crisp and clean, again it offers real character for very little money. Varietal Chardonnay and Malbec are of course richer; well-made, oak-free wines of flavor and personality that compete very successfully in world markets.

¿Organic? - Um, Some, Yum

Carlos Aranda’s most surprising investment this year was to separate a section of his winery and convert it to production of wines made from organic grapes.*

For almost 10 years some local growers have been converting a few parcels of their vineyards to organic agriculture. Carlos saw opportunities both at home and in export markets. He makes Chardonnay, Syrah, Bonarda and Merlot, all available at moderate prices. For even less, there is perhaps the most esoteric wine I’ve ever offered (and that’s saying a lot!): Organic Pedro Ximenez (a dry white). The organic wines are good, not fine or great. All are clean and stable (not always the case with organic wines) and true to their varietal types. Prices are reasonable. While I am fond of the Syrah and Bonarda, I found them better as a 50/50 blend then as stand-alones. The wines are offered either way. The organic Pedro Ximenez is probably my single favorite. Despite the almost comical lack of obvious commercial potential, it has been selling, primarily in Ecotopia.

• Progress with this worthy effort has been somewhat stymied by your friendly American government bureaucrats: Submissions for label approvals, accompanied by thick sheaves of substantiating documentation, have failed to sway them. The wines are produced from organic grapes. We have backup to prove it, but at least for now the labels will not say so.

Primé

Another exciting project from Viña Maipu oddly has very little to do with Carlos Aranda. Primé is a brand of sparkling wine of very high quality made at Viña Maipu. It is the brainchild of Jose Zambudio, Carlos’ accountant and a full-blown wine geek of the highest order. A friend of Jose’s, Norberto Richardi, is winemaker at a neighboring winery. Together they are producing two sparkling wines at Viña Maipu. One is made from Chardonnay and is really good. The other is made from Chenin Blanc and is outstanding. From a marketing point of view, it would obviously be better to have the word ‘Chardonnay’ on the label. But we’re selling wine here, not labels. The Primé Brut we are selling is 100% Chenin Blanc and there is no mention of the varietal on the label.

In Argentina, this is being sold as ‘Rimé’. As there is already an Italian wine brand here with that name, we added a letter at the beginning.

Also New

Carlos has added varietal Merlot and Cabernet to his lineup and also two higher-level barrel-aged wines under the name ‘Sublimis’. These are not yet being offered, but their time may come.

It would have been easy for Viña Maipu to be lost in the mass of industrial wines emanating from vineyards around the world. I am happy to have found Carlos Aranda and even happier to see the wealth of innovation his new market has spurred.