Pulenta Estate Argentina 20th Anniversary Wine Tasting of Gran Corte with Special Guests Eduardo Senior, Eduardo Jr., Diego and Valentino Pulenta

It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.

~Heraclitus

And we will be relaxing over some of the best wine made in Argentina on Tuesday October 17th with one of favorite producers from Mendoza, Pulenta Estate!

The immigrants that founded Argentina came from continental Europe in the 1700’s and there was a large amount of Italians who emigrated during this time period.  Many people who have visited this country see similarities between the European lifestyle and that of South America.  In fact, Argentina was at one time one of the largest consumers of wine in the entire world.  This was one of the main reasons why the quality of its wines was so poor, most of the wine never left Argentina and the local consumers were not very discerning with what they drank. This all changed in the 1990’s as hard spirits became fashionable and wine consumption began to decline.  This decline in wine sales left producers looking for a place to sell their juice.  As exporters began to show the wines of Argentina to foreign markets they realized that to compete with the rest of the free world they would have to make higher quality wine.  One of the most promising markets for Argentina’s wine in terms of exposure and long term relationship is the United States, but the quality of the wines would need to improve before the North Americans would take the wines of Argentina seriously.

The province of Mendoza is the traditional center of winemaking in Argentina, which produces more than 75% of the country's finest wines.  Malbec from the southwest of France is the red varietal that has best adapted to Argentine soil – I wanted to see first-hand what gave the Mendoza province the ability to produce the best Malbec specimens in the world.  So in the summer of 2015 I traveled to this wine region to kiss the dirt and one of my stops on this journey was one of my favorite producers, Pulenta Estate.

The Pulenta family has been a prominent and respected force in Argentine viticulture for three generations. Sons of well-known winegrower Antonio Pulenta, and descendants of Italian immigrants, Eduardo and Hugo Pulenta founded Pulenta Estate in 2002.  The vineyards are 100% estate-owned and farmed for high quality and limited yields. Their extensive holdings in the Agrelo area of Lujan de Cuyo have allowed them to create a broad portfolio that includes sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, chardonnay, pinot noir, malbec rose; merlot, cabernet franc, malbec and cabernet sauvignon in several tiers and even a late harvest red blend.

The tradition, knowledge, and experience of the family acquired during 100 years since the arrival of Angelo Polenta y Palmina Spinssanti to Argentina, is still alive today at Pulenta Estate.  All of the wines here are among the best you can find not only from Argentina but from any of the worlds’ top wine growing regions.

My favorite wines from Mendoza are made with Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varietals but everything here at Pulenta estate over delivers for the $$$.  Their entry level Bodegas La Flor De Pulenta is an amazing value at under $15 per bottle for all of the varietals on this offering.  These are wines that you can open up every day and the Pulena Estate wines can be cellared for decades, they have the concentration, balance and complexity to age for decades.  Today we have an offering on everything the winery has in the market currently and then some notes on things to come from my recent trip to Mendoza.

Join us as we welcome the current generation of the family to south Florida for a special tasting here at the store.  The entire Pulenta family will be here to celebrate their 20th release of the Gran Corte and you get to taste the empanadas that Toni learned how to make at the Rancho house at Pulenta Estate.  The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $150 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

PULENTA ESTATE ARGENTINA 20TH ANNIVERSARY WINE TASTING OF GRAN CORTE WITH SPECIAL GUESTS EDUARDO SENIOR, EDUARDO JR., DIEGO AND VALENTINO PULENTA
Tuesday, October 17th
7:30 PM

2008 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN CORTE RED MENDOZA
2014 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN CORTE RED MENDOZA
2016 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN CORTE RED MENDOZA
2018 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN CORTE RED MENDOZA
2019 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN CORTE RED MENDOZA
2020 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN CORTE RED MENDOZA

Menu
Selection of Cheesse and Chacuterie
Baby Pepper with Quail Egg and Virgin Olive Oil
Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Bourbon Vegetable Consomee, Cheese Tortelini with Edamame and Tomato Concasse
Beef Empanadas with Mole Sauce
Caramel Flan

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $150 + tax , for reservations call 954-523-9463.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any food allergies or aversions and chefs Toni and Dani will be happy to accommodate you.

My Notes from the Mendoza Tour 2015

Our visit came at the same time as one of the biggest snowstorms that hit the Andes in the last three years.  After a big snowstorm hits the mountains from Chile to Argentina, it pushes all of the warmer air down through the valley and lowers the pressure creating a lot of dust and cloud like effect making the sky gray in color and creating a howling wind known as the Zonda.  This wind can be quite strong, knocking out power lines as it did at Pulenta Estates’ Rancho house on our first night but thanks to modern technology and a generator the power was back up within the hour.   This snowstorm was much needed as this picture above shows a canal in the vineyard which is now completely dry.  In the past when it does rain, this canal completely floods its boundaries and takes out trees and anything else in its path including bridges.  It will soon be filled with water again when the snow from this storm melts in a month or so.  This Zonda wind from the mountains usually happens in August but if it happens a bit later it can affect the flowering which in turn can be good for the concentration of the grapes as it can lower the yields having a natural crop thinning effect.

The grill is a great way to prepare Argentina’s national food and the third generation of the Pulenta family showed us how they do it with the fire on the side and this slow cooking lends to very juicy tender steak with the pepper and egg combination also a local tradition explained to us by Pulenta winemaker Javier Lo Forte. 

The Pulenta family has been growing grapes for three generations in Mendoza and when they arrived from Italy at the turn of the last century in Buenos Aires like all the immigrants at that time they were quarantined for 40 days.  After they determined that they were disease free, the Argentine government sent the family off to Mendoza because of their history in the wine industry in Italy. 

They focused their efforts on growing grapes until 2002 when they began producing their own wines under the Pulenta estate wine label.  Today, they harvest 1 million tons of fruit but sell about 70% of the harvest and only keep the best for the wines with their namesake.  

They have two vineyards; the Agrelo property is around 120 hectares and was planted in 1991 originally to chardonnay and merlot under the advice of famous Bordeaux enologist Michel Rolland.  Today, they have grafted many of those original vines over to petit verdot, malbec, sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio and cabernet franc but they still have 6 blocks of that original merlot used for blending. 

The family also has another vineyard in the Uco Valley which was planted in 1980.  It is 340 hectares and with these two properties they supply 100% of that fruit needed for the Pulenta Estate wines.

The new challenge for the winery is to try to show the difference between the two terroirs and they will soon release their first Pulenta estate wines from the two sites showcasing the difference in these two terroirs.  We have notes on these wines coming up later in this review and the picture below is a cross section of soil from the Agrelo vineyard as they are studying the profile of the soils to better understand the nature of the wines produced here.

Eduardo is the third generation of the Pulenta family in the wine business and his father is also Eduardo so there was no question what his career would be as they have a strong sense of place here for the family business and he could not have picked another profession as the Pulenta Estate winery would not be the same without the passion and knowledge that his family as bestowed on him.

Almost the entire Pulenta family is involved in the wine industry but one of Eduardo's uncles runs an import company that deals with Porsche cars and ironic enough most of the family also has a passion for racing cars.  At the winery they have several racing engines on display and it is appropriate that they are the wine company chosen by the executives at Porsche to create a special wine label to celebrate the release of each new Porsche model.

Another of Eduardo’s uncles Carlos runs Vista Alba vineyards, which is a vineyard property of approximately 60 hectares.  All three of these Pulenta family vineyards were planted by Eduardo's grandfather.

Carlos Pulenta owns Vista Alba winery today but he has also been involved with other important projects like Salentine from 1997-2006, he was the CEO but after selling a 50% stake in this winery he was forced by the new owners to focus solely on Vista Alba.  Although the family has competing interests in terms of different wine labels they are still very close and Carlos is Eduardo's godfather.

Trapiche which is the largest winery in Argentina today was also one of the family’s brands until they sold it in 1997.  They sold winery facility along with the vineyards in the east and kept the rest, leaving them with some of the top vineyard sites in Agrelo wine growing region.

Pulenta Estate is on the cutting edge of technology in the vineyards and they realize that soils are important but they are also using satellite photos to learn how to manage the canopy better.  Photos and the sensors in the vineyards show the different Canopy’s affect plant vigor and give them a better understanding on when to harvest achieving optimum ripeness.  They also pick also at different times to get different ripeness levels for a perfect balance of fruit, acid and tannins.

They use a combination of concrete, stainless and wood tanks.  The concrete give them and advantage making bigger wine because they keep the temperatures better with temp control on the walls and floor of the tanks.  Stainless Steel tanks more freshness do all of the whites go in stainless except a portion of the Chardonnay.   They barrel ferment to give spice micro, oxygenation and mix the three together to give added complexity to the resulting wines.

They have some very small tanks that they can play with and do research with small lots of specific parcels of the vineyard.  Winemaker Javier Lo Forte has free reign to experiment with the wineries top parcels to create better wines each year as he can play with a lot of different trials, like the Chardonnay is now 50/50 steel and barrel fermented giving them the ability to come up with the perfect blend of ripe fruit, freshness and oak spice.  The chardonnay is surprisingly good considering its $15 price tag and the 2021  vintage is better on the second day after it is opened!

Roto fermentors make the red wines softer and rounder and they are also using barrels to do the same.  And they have a room that they can heat up to induce malo lactic fermentation if necessary.  All these new tools and technology are part of the reason that these wines are at the top level of quality but they also use old technology like hand harvesting.  They hand harvest everything and have had their workers for a long time so if they have fruit that is not up to par and they leave it on the vines as we noticed there was still bunches of grapes on the vines on our visit in the middle of winter. 

All the Pulenta Estate Wines at Wine Watch on SALE!
 
2019 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN CORTE RED MENDOZA
Price: $55.50                   Your Price: $48.84
A blend of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Tannat, only 1500 cases produced.  A big bouquet of dark berry fruit, mocha, toasty oak spice, dark cherry liqueur and dark chocolate, very rich and lots of richness but still elegant.  A very rich and chewy wine with a good amount of dark spices, coco and sweet tobacco with dark earth, intense minerality and more, big but still quite balanced through the finish, this wine has excellent structure and depth, even better on the second day, this wine should age for a decade or more in your cellar.  Finish 50+                Most Excellent +

2019 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN MALBEC X LUJAN DE CUYO
Price: $49.00     Your Price: $43.12          Quantity in Stock: 1
Production of this wine is only 2.500 cases.  This is the top tier a blend of two different vineyards, Uco Valley and Alto Agrelo, vinified separately and aged in French barrel for 18 months.  A good amount of dark berry fruit, blackberry, black licorice, violet floral and espresso notes.  Rich and ripe black berry fruit on the tongue with a good amount of dark mocha and licorice spice, big but still quite fresh at the end.  Finish 45+ Most Excellent


2019 PULENTA ESTATE GRAN CABERNET FRANC XI MENDOZA
List Price: $49.00            Your Price: $43.12              Quantity in Stock: 6
A good amount of peppery spice, with hints of eucalyptus, tobacco dried with intense blackberry fruit, only 2500 cases produced of this 100% varietal wine, there is only one block of 5 hectares planted on the estate to this varietal.  A good amount of that peppery spice with a lovely balance of fruit and once again excellent freshness a bit of dry tannins at the finish, this wine opened up very nicely, smoothing out the next day.  Finish 45+                Excellent +

2019 PULENTA ESTATE MALBEC I, AGRELO, ARGENTINA
Price: $27.75     Your Price: $24.42
The wine has an attractive, bright purple color, with aromas of red fruits like strawberries and cherries and delicate floral notes of violents and lilacs. On the palate, the wine is soft, round and persistent. Its elegant yet structured expressions shows the strength of this terroir.

2020 BODEGAS LA FLOR PULENTA MALBEC ROSE MENDOZA ARGENTINA
Price: $16.75                   Your Price: $14.74
OUR PHILOSOPHY: Making a great wine is an act of generosity, always considering the one who will taste it. Our mission is to produce limited series of great wine proudly made in Argentina.
VINEYARD · Location: vineyards from La Zulema Estate, Agrelo, Luján de Cuyo · Altitude above sea level: 980 meters. · Varietal: 100% Malbec. · Age: vineyards planted in 1992. · Yield per hectare: 10.200 bottles/ha.
TASTING NOTES: Our Malbec Rosé has a soft pink color with a vivid purple hue. The aroma is intense, expressing fresh fruits like cherry, strawberry and watermelon. With notes of rose petals and raspberries on the palate. Delicate, with a round and fresh finish in the palate.

2021 PULENTA ESTATE SAUVIGNON BLANC MENDOZA
Price: $19.25                   Your Price: $16.94
The fruit here comes from the Uco valley, green apple, white grapefruit citrus and some fresh picked grass but just a touch they do three harvests one for high acidity, then the second for more pineapple and grapefruit and then the third for the alcohol ripe tropical fruits mango passion fruit notes three months on the lees.  Very Good +

2021 PULENTA ESTATE CHARDONNAY VIII MENDOZA
List Price: $16.75            Your Price: $14.74
This wine spends 50% in stainless steel tanks and 50% in French oak barrels, 50% of the wine goes through spontaneous malolactic fermentation in barrels, 50% does not.  Lemon and green apple fruit with a flinty mineral note to the nose hints of lightly toasted oak spice, vanilla bean spice, nutmeg. A very rich and creamy wine on the tongue with a very plush wine with a nice touch of spice, vanilla and cinnamon, a firm hand of acidity, very well built, this wine should last for 3-5 years at least very well balanced. Finish 40+

2019 BODEGAS LA FLOR PULENTA MALBEC MENDOZA ARGENTINA
List Price: $16.75            Your Price: $14.74              Quantity in Stock: 7
Very pretty nose like raspberry preserves strawberry fruit very pretty a mixture of fruit from both valleys. Higher yields in the vineyards and they harvest a small part a bit earlier to keep the freshness. A shorter maceration smooth and drinkable 6 months in older barrique 3-5 years old, a light and refreshing style very pleasant. Finish 40+ very good

2020 BODEGAS LA FLOR PULENTA CABERNET SAUVIGNON MENDOZA
List Price: $16.75            Your Price: $14.74              Quantity in Stock: 10
Excellent ruby color, typical of cabernet sauvignon. Spicy aromas with jam notes that show its complexity, with hints of tabacco from the aging in oak. Round on the palate with soft tannins