Everything you need to know about our visit of Mendoza’s best sparkling wine producer; Chandon, Argentina

Let’s say I’ve regretted for a long time my decision of making a reservation in advance to visit Chandon’s vineyard. I was hesitant to visit a sparkling wine vineyard as Mendoza is mainly known for its delightful Malbec… While I am there, why should I waste 2 hours of my short stay in Mendoza to visit a sparkling wine producer!?

On the other hand, I thought it would be something different as we were visiting more than one vineyard that day! I wasn’t sure of my decision until I finally set foot at Chandon.

A SPECTACULAR VINEYARD

When the doors opened, we met our lovely guide, Brian, who took us through a unique tour of the facilities. I’ve already visited many vineyards, like here in Bordeaux, but I’ve never had the chance to be there during wine harvest season. I must say it’s a real plus!

Going through Chandon’s hallways, we were able to see the workers outside about to cut the grapes from the vines, which are all hand-picked. We were lucky to see everybody at work. Our guide, Brian, a charming Spanish tour guide, took us through every step of their delicious sparkling wine process.

It all begins with picking the grapes, which are then pressed by using only 1lb of pressure to extract the juice. Once that’s done, the grape juice goes into large barrels where it’s fermented and aged. We even learned how they separate the sediments left in the bottle after ageing, using Madame Clicquot’s technique. This step is done just before bottling and packaging the sparkling wine. Every bottle requires many hours of work, done by experts before we can finally enjoy it!

AN EXTRAORDINARY TASTING

We took the Platinum wine tasting paired with food. It costs $25 per person, and we tasted four of their premium sparkling wines. Such an experience! The concept is to eat various foods such as cheese, nuts, chocolate, olive oil, and observe how sparkling wine reacts with each item.

We have been surprised many times… Especially by Mendoza’s Chandon‘s sparkling wines which were to die for! The best of the Platinum tasting, a high-end tasting, is that you get to spend an hour with your tour guide to learn even more about sparkling wine. You may know by now how passionate I am about wine, so this tour was just perfect!

We left Chandon very happy and a little tipsy, but mostly thankful for learning so much about sparkling wine production. If you visit Mendoza, make sure to book your tour at Chandon!

This post was translated from French to English by: