Wine Maker Focus - Susana Balbo
Susana Balbo graduated with an oenology degree in 1981 and has gone on to become one of Argentina’s and in fact the wine industry’s most respected wine makers of recent days. She stands out not for her gender but for her incredible, skill, experience and devotion to her trade.
Susana Balbo developed her skills as a winemaker during her nine years in Argentina’s Cafayate province. In 1990, Susana returned to Mendoza to refine her skills as an export manager at Catena, a stalwart of the Argentinean wine industry and was later heavily involved in designing the new Catena winery, an important experience for later designing her own. As fate would have it she also met her husband there, Pedro Marchevsky who was a long-time vineyard manager at Catena.
Susana was the first Argentine winemaker to be hired as a consultant to make wine outside of Argentina. She has made wine in Australia, California, Chile, France, Italy, South Africa, and Spain, and spends a month each year in a different wine region of the world studying with local winemakers and growers. She is currently also a consultant winemaker to Patricio Gouguenheim at the Gouguenheim Winery, a small family owned boutique winery in Agrelo, Mendoza that can boast some of the highest altitudes for a vineyard in the region.
Twenty years of experience in producing wines for others has led to Susana along with her husband Pedro to apply her expertise to opening their own winery, The Dominio del Plata Winery and putting Susana Balbo on the label. Their main philosophies of viticulture are:
- Precision Viticulture – “a grape-growing philosophy that demands attention to every detail, however small.”
- Sustainable Agriculture – “the entire project was specially designed and implemented in a way that doesn’t harm the natural resources, preserves the environment, functions according to social requirements, and at the same time maintains productivity in order to remain economically competitive.”
- Superior Winemaking skills: “(their) winemaking skills and professional knowledge have been developed over more than two decades of managing high-quality winemaking, and through intensive and prolonged education and research.”
- Love and Passion- “knowledge and experience are not the only keys to successful winemaking. Every step of top-quality wine production demands a love and a passion for the winemaking process in order to obtain a successful result.”
Susana strives for balance in her wines, with layers of complexity coming from the individually fermented varietals and wants people to drink her wine and feel that every sip from the glass is as exciting as the first. She considers her role as winemaker to be the connection between the past – the vineyards, the present – the winemaking, and the future – the finished wines.
Susana and Pedro run their winery as very much a family affair. Pedro and his son manage the vineyards whilst Pedro’s daughter-in-law who is an artist designs all the labels. One of the wines is called ‘Crios’ which means ‘Offspring’. The label depicts two small hands in a big one symbolising Susana and her two children inspired by a Mayan artefact, that is yet another wonderful example of this holistic approach to their wine and vineyard, that is so refreshing. Fittingly another of her wines is called ‘Brioso’ which means ‘tenacity of strength of spirit’, an adjective that is said to be used by Susana’s close friends to describe both herself and her passion for make great wines.
Dominio Del Plata Wines
BenMarco
BenMarco is Pedro’s surname which means son of Marco in Hebrew. The BenMarco wines try to stress the original aroma and flavors of the grapes.
Susana Balbo
Susana Balbo wines combine the complexity of the grapes, their production process along with her creativeness as an oenologist and expertise in the evolution of fine wines.
Susana Balbo wines include: Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Brioso (an ultra-premium blend of traditional Bordeaux varietal grapes).
Crios de Susana Balbo
Crios means “offspring” (children). Susana selected a word to express the notion that these are wines that haven’t quite “grown up” to the same level of quality and maturity as her more expensive Susana Balbo signature label wines, but they receive the same loving care and attention throughout the winemaking process.
Crios wines include: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah-Bonarda, Torrontes, and Rosé of Malbec.
Gouguenheim Wines
Momentos del Valle
Translates as ‘Moments of the Valley’ is are value for money wine that include Chardonnay and Tempranillo.
Estaciones del Valle
‘Seasons of the Valley’, this range are pure, fruit driven wines with good concentration and minmal oak influence. It uses four varietals that are labelled with the colours of the four seasons: Invierno Cabernet Sauvignon (Winter), Primavera Syrah (Spring), Verano Merlot (Summer) and Otono Malbec (Autumn).
Flores del Valle
‘Flower of the Valley’, are the best wines from a given vintage from the Estate vines. The preferred variety makes up the largest portion of the blend with a smaller percentage of the other varietals planted on the estate. Flores is reminiscent of a ripe year Saint Emilion with its powerful core of fruit, elegant structure and notes of cedar and tobacco. It is reputed to be one of the top wines from Tupungato, the winery’s main vineyard in Mendoza.
We offer a wide range of Susana Balbo wines as well as wines from the Gougenheim Winery and hope you enjoy them as much as we have at The Sussex Wine Company.
Sources:
Dominio del Plata
Pinnacle Argentina
There are no available products under this category.
|
