Wine made from the highest vineyard in the world

[Mike Buckley]

Every once in awhile I buy a wine because of something unique about it that has nothing to do with the flavor or the food it complements. That's the case of the wine shown below, which I purchased because it was made from grapes grown in the highest vineyard in the world at an altitude of 8200 feet (2500 meters). Bodega Fernando Dupont's winery and vineyard are located in Quebrada de Humahuaca, which is a UNESCO Cultural and Natural World Heritage site in Maimará, Jujuy, Argentina.

Fortunately, the wine is probably quite good. It's a Malbec blended with 15% Syrah and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon that is rated in a range of 90 to 94 points by three well-known critics. However, it has more alcohol than my wife and I generally prefer, a whopping 15.5%, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the overall taste.

Photo Setup
Though I realize the image looks rather simple (at least I hope its simplicity is enjoyable), Makeshift Studio Galactic Headquarters became quite cramped to make everything happen. A large lamp that has about an 18-inch reflector and a circular diffuser about twice that size were positioned behind the background to provide the light on the tabletop and to brighten the edges of the bottle. A remotely fired speed light attached to a strip soft box placed at a 45-degree angle to a rectangular diffuser were placed on the right side of the scene to provide the subtle gradient on that side of the bottle. (A gradient on curved glass is attractive on its own and also helps define the shape of the glass.) A gobo with a rectangle cut out of the middle was placed in front of the lens to eliminate flare. All of that was used to photograph everything except the bottle's label and foil. Those were fine-tuned separately using a handheld lamp in two additional shots that were merged with the first shot.

[Donald]

Excellent way in which to have lit such a classy, understated bottle. I suspect the contents will indeed be rather nice.

[Shadowman]

I was first introduced to Malbec's a few years ago while touring Argentina, one of my favorite reds. Nicely captured, as I know you are fond of red meat (unless the fondness is only through photography) this should perfectly as a pairing or as a sipping wine.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Donald and John.

I agree, John, that Malbec is ideally paired with red meat and I also enjoy drinking it on its own. If you were in the Mendoza wine region of Argentina where Malbec is so prevalent and good, I envy you!

My wife and I actually eat relatively little red meat at least compared to American standards, usually just once every two weeks and no more than once a week unless we're eating leftover stew. Almost all of our red meat is either breast of duck with all fat removed, which makes the serving very lean and healthy, or lamb, my favorite meat, which is not so healthy. Despite that beef is the only meat I have photographed, we eat it only about once every three months; sorry to be misleading.

Other than enjoying Bordeaux-like blends that have a small amount of Malbec, most Malbec I've drunk has not been blended with other species. So, I'm looking forward to this blend that is about two-thirds Malbec.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Mike The image looks nice but does it need a bit of rotating anticlockwise ? Or may be my eyes are wrong I like the highlights framing the bottle very much.And the label looks very nice , detailed and real.

[Manfred M]

A very nice shot with an interesting dialogue. Thanks, Mike.

All that writing about height and wines brings back memories of a trip we made to Madiera many years ago. The island is effectively an extinct volcano and goes from sea level to some fairly decent heights quite quickly. Famous for the wines named after the island, the level of sweetness is directly proportional to the altitude the grapes are grown at.

The ones closest to the bottom of the hill are the sweetest and the level of sugar seems to drop as the grapes are grown higher up. I understand this is related to the varieties of grapes, with the sweet malmseys (malvasia) grown lower down, followed by the boal is next, followed by the verdelho and the dry sercial at the top.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks also to Binnur and Manfred!

Binnur: I don't think the image is tilted; it looks straight when viewed with a grid superimposed over it.

Manfred: I don't remember ever reading about the different Madeira grapes being grown at different heights. Thanks for the info!

[Shadowman]

Thank you to Donald and John.

I agree, John, that Malbec is ideally paired with red meat and I also enjoy drinking it on its own. If you were in the Mendoza wine region of Argentina where Malbec is so prevalent and good, I envy you!

My wife and I actually eat relatively little red meat at least compared to American standards, usually just once every two weeks and no more than once a week unless we're eating leftover stew. Almost all of our red meat is either breast of duck with all fat removed, which makes the serving very lean and healthy, or lamb, my favorite meat, which is not so healthy. Despite that beef is the only meat I have photographed, we eat it only about once every three months; sorry to be misleading.

Other than enjoying Bordeaux-like blends that have a small amount of Malbec, most Malbec I've drunk has not been blended with other species. So, I'm looking forward to this blend that is about two-thirds Malbec.

Your food photography wasn't misleading, I actually edited the comment to reflect that it was my assumption that you were a frequent meat eater.

I didn't get a chance to visit the Mendoza region, but will be an excuse to revisit the area. One of my favorite Malbec's is the Dona Paula brand, researching the vineyard online introduced me to the process of vinification.

"This wine is the result of a microvinification in barrels from these very limited-release lots. When they enter into the winery, the grapes undergo a double sorting table, first bunches and then in a vibratory table, by berries. Second-used French oak 225 liters barrels are filled with 170 kilograms of pure-clean berries, which are immediately re-caped and sent to a special room temperature controlled at around 20 °C where the alcoholic- wild culture -and malolactic fermentation take place.

To make a soft extraction, the barrels are rolled daily for 10 to 15 days. Then, the wine is racked to new French oak barrels where it is aged for 14 months. This artisanal vinification method ensures that grapes are handled gently and all the process is carried out by gravity."

Text taken from the Dona Paula website.

http://www.donapaula.com/en/?page_id...alluvia-parcel

[Mike Buckley]

The stuff about rolling the barrels is interesting, John. I wonder what purpose rolling them serves. I hadn't heard of that but I know very little about wine-making.

[Shadowman]

The stuff about rolling the barrels is interesting, John. I wonder what purpose rolling them serves. I hadn't heard of that but I know very little about wine-making.

Mike,

They called it a soft extraction, I believe they use this method to remove the skin as they said the barrels are filled with berries. I'd love to see a video of or the actual process, plus some wineries sell their product at discount prices. I did get to see the sorting and fermentation process on another trip, however the methods were so mechanical as the operation was a consortium and they processed grapes for multiple farms.

[Mike Buckley]

Got it! I didn't realize about the term, soft extraction, what was being extracted. I read up a bit and learned the following:

"Once the grapes have reached the winery, the way the polyphenolic substances (principally the tannins and anthocyanins) are extracted has a huge impact on the quality and character of the final wine. Winemakers have plenty of decisions to make about how to macerate red grapes so as to achieve the right level of polyphenol extraction. Some of the significant parameters that can be manipulated are the temperature of fermentation, pumping over or punching down the cap, the choice of fermentation vessel (small volume open-top fermenters, versus large tanks, versus rotary fermenters), the use of prefermentation cold maceration, and malolactic in barrel—and this list is far from complete. There are also new methods of extraction that are only just emerging, [I don't know the date of this article] such as the flash d’etant system (that involves heating) and cross current extractors, but it’s too soon to say what sort of effect these will have and whether they will have wide take-up. The idea behind these techniques is that current extraction methods only pull out a proportion of the total phenolics present in grape skins, and it may be possible to enhance wine quality by removing more without also extracting unwanted polyphenolics from the seeds."

http://www.wineanorak.com/tannins.htm

[HaseebM]

Hi Mike The image looks nice but does it need a bit of rotating anticlockwise ? Or may be my eyes are wrong I like the highlights framing the bottle very much.And the label looks very nice , detailed and real.

Agree with Binnur. Grid or not, eyes don't lie, perhaps an illusion then. Definitely needs a bit of tilting anti-clockwise.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for confirming Binnur's thinking, Haseeb. I'll try tilting it slightly.

[Shadowman]

Got it! I didn't realize about the term, soft extraction, what was being extracted. I read up a bit and learned the following:

"Once the grapes have reached the winery, the way the polyphenolic substances (principally the tannins and anthocyanins) are extracted has a huge impact on the quality and character of the final wine. Winemakers have plenty of decisions to make about how to macerate red grapes so as to achieve the right level of polyphenol extraction. Some of the significant parameters that can be manipulated are the temperature of fermentation, pumping over or punching down the cap, the choice of fermentation vessel (small volume open-top fermenters, versus large tanks, versus rotary fermenters), the use of prefermentation cold maceration, and malolactic in barrel—and this list is far from complete. There are also new methods of extraction that are only just emerging, [I don't know the date of this article] such as the flash d’etant system (that involves heating) and cross current extractors, but it’s too soon to say what sort of effect these will have and whether they will have wide take-up. The idea behind these techniques is that current extraction methods only pull out a proportion of the total phenolics present in grape skins, and it may be possible to enhance wine quality by removing more without also extracting unwanted polyphenolics from the seeds."

http://www.wineanorak.com/tannins.htm

Even more new terms that help distinguish amongst vintages. I also wonder if extraction methods chosen have to do with how the byproducts might be used for grappa.

[Mike Buckley]

I had never even heard of grappa. Thanks for that tidbit of new knowledge. I'll test my wife about it over Thanksgiving dinner.