Maipo

When one takes off from Mendoza, Argentina, Airport, to cross the Andes on a scheduled flight to Santiago de Chile over the Andes snowy peaks many over 6000m some reaching near 7.000m., there will be various events which the even most experience globetrotting yet setters will find unusual, the mostly Boeing 737 will have to produce a kind of kick start to gain sufficient altitude to cross through and in between the first lower tops as the condors are using the thermal lift of ring hot air to gain altitude for more natural purposes.
At one point in time it is like the plane is not going to make it and has to hurry up to gain speed to scale the first real high mountains. After a few minutes the view is truly unforgettable as  you are crossing a really untouched part of the world in fact it’s condors’ view of its own mountainous habitat.

I came from a week of professionally mostly winning and – the required somewhat less – dinning in the Mendoza Vineyards surrounding this provincial North Argentinian wine capital.

It was a time – end 19801 early 1990’s – when wine agency agreements with vineyards in South America could relatively easy be condlcude signed and sealed, usually an on the spot order for a 40 foot container of wine accompanied by a generous down payment did the trick and this without stiff sales clauses which would appear only a few decades later. It must have been around the 1990’s that the South American wines became known to the average and more knowledgeable new world wine consumer. Only red wines seemed to be shipped from Buenos Aires and Valparaiso and this mostly below the ships’ waterlines to keep the wines cool during the long ocean crossing towards European ports, crossing with took 2 to 3 month including discharge, customs clearing, handling, import duties, certification of origin, health, etc. etc. ; financing this trade was losing affair surely in the short term and as I felt, at the time, could only be made profitable through brand building by opening new markets having solid financial staying power, a monk’s patience and like or even better love for the wine trade!

I visited at the time Martins, Mitjans, Lagarde, Concha y Toro, Tarapaca, San  Felipe, Santa Emma and many more local vineyards and wine merchants, bought their wines by container loads distributed them in Europe and beyond, lost money, yes I admit, in the short run surely but enjoyed every second of it, at least it was more enjoyable selling a good bottle of Malbecq to the El Gauchos restaurant chain than advising El Gauchos owners to loss their profits on the Chicago Boards of Trades’ commodity futures markets in a agonizing and losing soybean meal or pork belly positon apart from the fact that I rather discuss unpaid wine delfivery invoices than margin calls for nearly always losing speculative commodities futures positions… furthermore in case of an unpaid wine invoice one can always goods in the case good wines, than a (always at market) liquidated futures position which only leaves financial carnage and endless litigation.

Chili is considered a viticulture paradise, free of diseases, warm climates and cooling nights and good clean rains from the Andes, many experts say not without reason that it is not difficult to produce good wines in Chile. This must be true as also the Rothschilds’ are producing in Chile since decades…

Maipo is the region where the battle of Maipo raged in 1818 and where the Chileans kicked the Spanish conquistadores out of this, Chilean part, of the Andes, and where at the moment Chili’s best grapes are enjoying arguable the world best conditions to grow and presently mature into one of words best wines.

Maipo can easily be reached by car from Santiago de Chile and Maipo’s vineyards are very much accessible for wine buyers small and large. In the future when VintoVIno expands you will be able to buy directly wine from Chile’s wineries or get information from the vineyards principals or its local staff.

M.J. San Martin