Zuccardi

Inteligent Design

Charlie O`Malley gets excited about irrigation

You don´t have to be a rocket scientist to make wine, but it seems to help if you`re an engineer. Some of Argentina´s best known wineries were started by men more accustomed to blueprints than purple lips. The best know is Norton, started by an Englishman who came to plant railway tracks across the Andes, and instead planted vines. Another famous architect of wine is Mario Giadorou, founder of the underground Dolium in Perdriel. It seems winemaking is as much a science as an art and requires the cool, analytical mind of a planner and designer. Your typical artist on the other hand is more famous for drinking wine than making it.

"Zuccardi also discovered a hidden talent for making good wine"

In the 1950s Don Alberto Zuccardi was a Mendocino engineer specialising in irrigation. He invented his own system, a variation of flood irrigation involving underground concrete pipes. His innovative method meant the water penetrated at a greater depth and thus provided healthier roots. Nevertheless he had trouble convincing local winemakers and fruit growers. Zuccardi decided the best way to demonstrate his design would be to grow some vines himself. He bought several hectares in the desert zone of Santa Rosa in the unfashionable north east and transformed it into lush vineyard country.
As well as proving his system worked, Zuccardi also discovered a hidden talent for making good wine. Though his irrigation remains (with the added feature of moisture sensors in the ground and computer controlled pumping), Zuccardi has now become more famous for his wines. The winery is the fourth largest exporter in Argentina and produces 16 million litres a year. The Santa Julia label has become the vanguard brand for Argentina, creating space on shelves all over the world and forging a reputation for consistenly high quality, good value wines.
The grapes are all estate grown from 1,200 planted acres. Faithful to their commitment to mix the best of the old with the new, Zuccardi use a parral system which is a local variant of the Italian style pergola. Grapes hang 7ft above the ground, the advantages being better photosynthesis and frost protection. The winery itself has a large experimental operation with up to 32 varieties in different stages of research. These include such exotic grapes as caladoc and ancellota..
The winery is now run by Alberto´s son, Jose, a genial Omar Sharif look-alike with a penchant for carrying a photo album of his impressive winery wherever he travels. In an age of executive-heavy multinationals, Zuccardi is a refreshing example of a family winery up there with the big boys and winning (its regarded as one of South America´s top 10 producers). Indeed Zuccardi seem to be ahead of everyone in many aspects. Their drive to be completely organic is certainly visionary. Already Zuccardi do a superb line of organic varietals and plan to extend it to all their range. Such zeal to go all natural includes using native yeasts and ambitions to de-mechanize and use horses and dog carts in the vineyards. Many Argentine wineries are in fact organic. The dry air and healthy altitude mean little is needed in the way of insecticides and fungicides. Zuccardi however are one of the few operations to recognise this as a marketing tool.

"It´s a little like church closing on Sundays"

Another area of innovation is tourism. Most Argentine wineries are still getting used to the fact that people actually want to come and visit them. Visitors are shocked when they learn Mendoza`s wineries are closed at weekends. It´s a little like church closing on Sundays. Also, most Argentine wineries think a tourist department requires a young guide and an answering machine and nothing else. Many brand new wineries have no tourist facilities at all. Compare this to the United States where the visitor centre is often bigger than the winery. Here merchandising is non existent. Ask for a baseball cap in an Argentine winery and they`ll look at you like you`ve lost your mind.
Zuccardi are one of the few wineries to realise early on that tourism itself can be an important revenue stream. It is one of the few wineries that opens 7 days a week and doesn`t require appointments to do a wine tour. The winery has a gift shop and art gallery and more importanly a well appointed restaurant set amidst the vines. Lunches in Zuccardi are legendary affairs of limitless meat and wine, the quintessencial Mendocino experience. Once a year the winery opens its doors to the public and hosts a mammoth tasting of all their range to all the world. The winery is also one of the first to do special harvesting tours where visitors can don an apron and get splattered in grapejuice for an hour before retiring to lunch. Its clear Zuccardi enjoy what they are doing and unlike many other establishments want to share it with the world. It´s no wonder Jose Zuccardi describes their job as "bottling passion".

Some Zuccardi Wines

Tardio Torrontes The first sweet wine in Argentina