Xumek

Xumek is a winery located 20 km NW from San Juan's capital city, one of the most import wine province in Argentina. It was conceived in 1995 to be a boutique cellar oriented to produce high quality wines. The first harvest was in 2002. 2008 Xumek's production is 90,000 litres and next year will be 210,000 litres. This year production is distributed 35% on the local market. The cellar mainly exports its wines to the most exigent international markets such as West and East Coast of The United States of America and United Kingdom. The winery started to sell its wines to the Manitoba Liquor Commission. The wines have been well accepted by the Manitoba consumer. The professional who gives his knowledge to the cellar is the renowned wine maker Paul Hobbs who with his experience gives Xumek's wines the high quality that is appreciated in the European and American Markets, and beginning to be known in Canada.

www.xumek.com

Bodega Luis Segundo Correas in Mendoza, Argentina

Luis Segundo Correas is a 150 Year Old Winery, personally maintained by its owners, 4 generation of this traditional family of wines, who believe that the origin of the quality of wines begins in the vineyards.

The family owns 400 hectares of vineyards, some of which are 85 years old, distributed between 8 farms. The “Fincas” are “San Luis”, “Doña Ofelia”, “La Verde”, “Don Angelino”, “La Esperanza” and “El Tata”, are in the district of Medrano, at 850 meters above sea level, “Finca La Julieta” at 800 meters above sea level in Maipu, “Finca Las Marias” at 870 meters above sea level, where we have the following varieties: Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Sangiovesse and Bonarda in red wines; Chardonnary, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Tocai Friulano and Torrontes in white wines.

All the vineyards are placed in “The First Zone”, where the soil and weather are special for viticulture.

Engineer Agronomist Julian Correas controls the production to assure quality. He determines the pruning to achieve optimum quantity, supervising the process of pruning as well as the stripping of the leaves that will allow the necessary sun and a strict sanitary control of every wine-stock, in order to define those clusters that by their position and quality, await precise ripeness. Harvesting is manual and placed into small, plastic containers to avoid oxidation.

The vineyards are watered entirely by de-icing water from the mountain range of the Andes.

www.bodegacorreas.com.ar

Bodega Vistalba

Finca y Bodega Vistalba is a family vineyard located in the beautiful surroundings of Vistalba, one of the oldest cultivated areas in the Province of Mendoza, whose development of the winemaking began in the XVI Century with the Spanish colonization.

Bodega Vistalba is dedicated to premiun wines, both elegant and complex, with outstanding quality. In an environment with the perfect combination of winemaking, dinning, tasting and relax.

Carlos Pulenta is the second generation of a winemaking family devoted to the elaboration of high quality wines. His father, Don Antonio, and his uncles planted vines in San Juan and Mendoza. They also built different wineries, that today belong to different cousins.

Finca y Bodega Vistalba is the latest chapter in this history.

The winery

The winery stores four vintages:

• current year being processed;
• previous year, barrel aged;
• previous vintage kept in bottles; and
• a forth one in stock ready to be sold.

The whole process from harvest to bottling is carried out by gravity.

Bodega Vistalba has 2 farms:

1. VISTALBA are the blend wines, which are identified by Corte A, B and C. These blends add up the best of each harvest, different per vintage and with a great aging capacity. Each blend has its own and complex universe.
   
   
2. TOMERO are fresher and younger wines that show the characteristics of each varietal. The Tomero brand is a tribute to the old trade of managing the water supply which is vital for the region and its grapes which come from the Alto Valle de Uco.

www.carlospulentawines.com

Casa Montes

Casa Montes is among the 6 most important cellars in San Juan province, in Argentina. The winery is located 700 meters high in Tulum Valley in San Juan, the second largest wine producing Province in Argentina. It was conceived in 1992 to be a high end cellar oriented to produce high quality wines at excellent price. The winery is owned and managed by Montes Family, a very respectful family that owns the most important San Juan’s radio and newspaper.

Casa Montes Winery and Vineyards has 156 hectares of esplier vineyards (Smart-Dyson VSP system) and 11 varieties of grapes with fallows are imported from Italy. Casa Montes is a winery on top of technology, automatized, with a capacity of 2 million litters, irrigated by dripping with melt water from the Andes, collected from the reservoir of 33 million litters, obtaining the most healthy and maturity grapes and an ideal vinification. The cellar is in process of getting the ISO 9000 & HACCP certifications. This family business has invested in the cellar more than US$ 10 Millions in order to build a high end technological cellar.

The family strives to be a responsible winery and active contributor in Argentina’s community and built a fund raising program “Help People Future” www.helppeoplesfuture.com in order to secure the financing of specific social programs. The program also seeks the reinforcement of values such as education, personal effort and social integration.

By taking steps to reduce waste from the winery’s operations and recycle, Casa Montes preserve the earth’s natural resources and enhance the quality of lives around the globe. The cellar actively seeks opportunities to minimize the environmental impact and help create a healthy planet by protecting a reservoir of natural forests of bicentennial carob trees which contains 45 of the 49 species in the entire world. The cellar mainly exports its wines to the most exigent international markets such as The United States of America, United Kingdom, Brazil among other 20 countries in the world. The professional who gives his knowledge to the cellar is the renowned wine maker Angel Mendoza who worked more than 20 years in Trapiche. Casa Montes is working forward to get the organic certification.

www.casamontes.com.ar

El Porvenir de los Andes

El Porvenir de los Andes was founded in 1890 by a family of Italian immigrants who settled in the Cafayate Valley.  In 1999 it was reborn as a premium winery upon being bought by the Romero-Marcuzzi family, who knew the region and were inspired to develop a successful vitivinicultural project.  The Romero-Marcuzzis became interested in the Cafayate in the 1980s, when the family owned a winery in nearby Tolombón.  From their experience with their first winery the Romero-Marcuzzis developed a passion for the industry that led them to purchase El Porvenir de los Andes almost two decades later.  As the winery’s new owners, the family made significant investments in infrastructure, technology and new vineyards.

El Porvenir de los Andes is located in Cafayate at 5,740 feet above sea level.  The winery consists of 192 acres of carefully planted family-owned vineyards that are divided into two estates, Río Seco and El Retiro.  Cafayate’s climatic characteristics are perfect for the development of high-level vitiviniculture.  The soil, for example, gives the winery the perfect base for the cultivation of the vines:  it is deep and sandy, poor and without limiting topsoils.  Likewise, the temperatures are ideal for the grapes, with a day/night difference of 59-64ºF during the vegetative cycle of the vine.  This translates into a notable difference in the polyphenols, giving excellent structure and color to the wine. The solar radiation necessary to bring the grapes to an optimal ripeness level is guaranteed by at least 350 days of brilliant sunlight.  Rainfall varies, but the average yearly rainfall is only 120 millimeters.  When necessary, the vines are watered using modern irrigation methods, helping to control almost every facet that affects the quality of the grapes.  Finally, the winery rarely experiences damage from hail.  All of these factors contribute to the production of grapes that, through a careful winemaking process, create outstanding wines bottled under the name El Porvenir de los Andes.

www.bodegaselporvenir.com

Capel

Pisco is a wine distilled alcohol with Chilean Denomination of Origin. Pisco is the National Spirit for Chile. The National Cocktail is the Pisco Sour.
Chilean Denomination of Origin for Chile: Production (from harvest to bottle) is limited to the 3rd and 4th Region, 500 km to the north of Santiago, Chile’s Capital City. This part of Chile is reputed for its climate variations, 40 during the day and negative temperatures at night.

Capel is “The Agricultural and Pisco Cooperative of the Elqui Valley” was created in 1934, as an artisanal cooperative of grape producers, aiming at centralising production and commercialisation into one structure. Then the bran Capel was born in 1964, targeting the leadership of the Pisco market.

The Chilean vineyards dedicated to Pisco are planted from 100 up to 2,000 meters above sea level, with no pollution, 360 sunny days a year and the world’s crystal clearest skies.

To grow, the grape vines must search for humidity 10 meters below the ground (mixture of dirt, sand and stones) The roots must dig deep, which gives the character to the grapes: very aromatic with high sugar content.

Denomination of Origin: Limited area of production in Chile, Muscat grape varieties allowed (Muscat of Alexandria, Torontel and Pedro Jimenez) and Only use cooper potstill discontinuous distillation process (v/s continious columns.

www.capel.cl

Cantinian

CanTinian Wines began in 2007 when Canadians, Dana Rothkop and Debbie Crichton, purchased a spectacular and well-established vineyard in Mendoza, the best Malbec-growing region of Argentina.

CanTinians impressive vineyard is nestled in the foothills of the Andes. While much of CanTinian´s 20 acres of vines were originally planted in 1923 none of today´s vines are younger than thirty years old. The age and depth of the vines root systems adds complexity, continuity, and concentration of flavour to the grapes.

CanTinian´s vineyard has blossomed with the team of Rothkop and Crichton. Their business acumen has strengthened CanTinian and they are proudly offer a solid array of award-winning Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

www.cantinian.com