WHAT: A wine tasting at Bodega Norton WHERE: Just outside of the little town of Maipu (one of the three main wine regions in Mendoza) - some 20 km from Mendoza HOW LONG: The tour and tasting takes more or less 1,5 hour HOW MUCH: $12,50 per person for a tour
The city of Mendoza is located beautifully; on one side it’s surrounded by a vast patchwork of vineyards and on the other you it’s nestled cosy in the foothills of the high mountains of the Andes.
So what can you do over here, apart from visiting those gorgeous mountain backdrops? Drink wine? Yup. It’s as easy as that.
Wine is unarguable one of the area’s great attractions, if not thé greatest. And most of the wineries welcome you with open arms, ready to quench your curiosity about wine.
Guided tours usually cover the history of the winery itself, the process of how to make it and of course … a wine tasting session!
The most difficult part might be to choose which vineyard you want to go. But don’t worry, it’s almost impossible to pick out a wrong one, at least when it comes to the tasting. As a local put it: there’s no bad wine in this region. It is broadly accepted that everyone can make decent wine, whether you’re a garagistas (a garage winemaker) or working at a top-notch brand.
Since all of the vineyards are in such close proximity of one another (therefore sharing the same soil) and as the knowledge of winemaking has been in the area since centuries, this does kind of makes sense.
As we were looking on the map of the three wine region of Lujan de Cuyo, Uco Valley and Maipu, we based our choice on three preferences: a big-name brand we knew back home (I know… we better had supported a small family-owned vineyard, but we figured it would be fun to recognize the label again once back home – shame on us), a location that would be reachable by public transport and most importantly a guided tour that we could join very last-minute.
Thus we chose Norton.
We took the bus from Mendoza to the nearby village of Maipu (15 km / 9 miles), where most of the vineyards are located. Being limited in time, we took a taxi from the center of Maipu to the vineyard of Mendoza.
And there we arrived in the posh lobby of Norton. Suddenly I was a bit afraid this tour would be one for the wine snobs. I mean, I’m a wine enthusiast for sure, but I certainly wouldn’t say that I’ve got a deep knowledge about the different tastes or scents and this didn’t seemed like a place were they would welcome my Nikes and sporty outfit. Thankfully the 1,5-hour tour was not intimidating at all and interesting for novices and experts alike.
This tour gives you more than a tasting; it is an educational understanding of the process of making wine, without the nonsense. The enthusiastic guide led us through each step of the process, from explaining the effects of weather, growing and tasting the grapes, the observing the fermentation vats and the effects of the proper casks, bottles, and corks.
So what was the best of the tour? The ambience for sure. The vinery of Norton offers gorgeous backdrops of the Andes and boasts a multi-leveled cellar in a rather rustic yet super clean setting.
The tasting that was done in between was as instructional and lovely as the tour itself. Upon arrival we were offered a glass of sparkling wine and during the tour we were able to taste three reds more, all of them malbec and in several forms of storage: from stainless steel tank to oak barrel to bottle.
Although I already knew that the malbec came from this region, you can only grasp the importance of the grape while being in the area. It permeated the whole culture. The scale of wine production in the district of Mendoza is staggering and the amount of wine held in vats, barrels and bottles is amazing. Other reds that fare well are the cabernet sauvignon and merlot, while native grape torrontés riojano, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and viognier are the bedrock for the white ones.
A smart local opened a lovely restaurant/bar nearby Bodega Norton. Puesto del Jamón de Chipica is a perfect spot in case you get the munchies after the tour. It’s also a splendid opportunity to booster your Spanish as the owner loves to chat a little in between serving you his picadas, the typical Argentina platters full of appetizers.
So what can I say about this afternoon of wine tasting? If you’re visiting Mendoza you basically just have to taste and discover these great malbecs in their authentic habitat.
I’m not sure what would set apart this vineyard from any of the other ones. You probably need to visit them all to be able to compare them well enough. I personally thought that the tour at Norton was informative, included an excellent tasting and had friendly staff.
So go for it (or any other tour) and tell me what how your experience in the wine county was!
