We chose Mendel partly because Sue has Mendels among her relations. Mendel (the wine) reflects the first name of the father of one of the co-owners, while in Sue's family, Mendel is a surname, so, alas, she cannot claim kinship with the wine.
Mendel is a relatively new winery though the winemaker and co-owner, Roberto de la Mota, is an established and distinguished winemaker from a family of distinguished winemakers. We had the privilege of meeting with him and learning more about Mendel and wine in Argentina.
The winery is in a "vintage" winery building. Note the "cupola" on top of the building. It is a water tank, very common on residential and commercial buildings in Argentina. The people working are packing Mendel wines.
We tasted 2008 and 2009 Malbecs. Each was distinctive and each was excellent. We also tasted the signature Unus, which is a Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon blend and a 2010 Semillon. Terrific!
Catena Zapata is a much grander operation with several labels. We had the good fortune taste Luca (Laura Catena's personal wine), Catena Alta, the Catena Zapata single vineyard wines and the then the premier Catena wine, Nicolas Catena Zapata, a Mabec-Cab blend.
It is a most impressive facility, surrounded by vineyards.
We had several "wow" moments during our tour of the winery, including the barrel room and a storage area for unlabeled wines. The labels will be added once the destination of the wines is known to accommodate different countries' labeling requirements.
The glasses were empty when we finished.
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