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Category Archives: Scrapbook
What’s in a label?
We have a small vineyard in Mendoza. Vineyards make wine and wine has to be bottled and bottles bear labels. So, what’s in a label? As we begun thinking about this, there were some elements that had to be there. The Andes mountains. A pleasing and elegant off-white background. Our names in a modern font. And the place, Valle de Uco (aka Uco Valley). What else? Tradition has it that family wines carry the emblems of the family. And so the Marketing team at The Vines Of Mendoza took inspiration from those emblems and prepared three designs for the three wines we are producing with the 2023 vintage, Malbec Reserva, Malbec Grand Reserva (barrel fermented) and a Blend.
From wine lover to wine maker…
During a visit last year at Francis Mallmann’s restaurant “Siete Fuegos” in Valle de Uco, Mendoza, Argentina, we were introduced to the private vineyards at The Vines, a 600 hectares estate were wine lovers have the possibility to own 1-10 acres of a professionally managed vineyard to make wine under the guidance expert, top rated Argentine winemakers, such as Mariana Onofri and consulting winemaker Santiago Achaval.
And so it was that earlier this year we purchased one acre of Malbec planted in 2007 at this wonderful place and began the long journey from wine lovers to wine makers. Our Wine Making Plan for 2023 includes three types of Super Premium Malbec: one barrel fermented and two fermented in steel tanks, one half matured in first use French oak barrels and the other in third use barrels. The first harvest took place this March and the blending session will be in November later this year. We look forward to taste our (still very young) wines and experiment (we’re scientists, right?) with different combinations among them and together with other varietals, such as Cabernet Franc. We wanted to make this a very personal voyage and so our label simply carries our names, IBAÑEZ – MOLINER, and the design team is helping us coming up with a label that embodies our personal esthetics and inspiration. The Wine Making Plan for 2024 is already on the way and the focus will be to widen our portfolio with one harvested rosé based on Cabernet Franc and a young and fruit-forward Malbec from our own grapes. We hope for a great harvest in March next year. More soon…
The “New Normal”: A self-fulfilling prophecy?
“A self-fulfilling prophecy is a sociological term used to describe a prediction that causes itself to become true. The process by which a person’s expectations about something or someone can lead to that something or someone becoming or behaving in ways which confirm the expectations.”
From all the popular terms coming out of the current epidemic, surely is “new normal” the one that I abhor the most. We are currently bombarded by the constant pushing of the term “new normal” from all corners of society. Politicians, journalists and self-proccalimed “experts” all use it as some kind of brainwashing mantra. Normal is something ordinary, usual. Normal is average, it is typical, it is predictable. What we are going through today is not normal.
Je Suis Charlie
In Memoriam: Carlos Ibáñez Lagarejos (1929 – 2013)
