Our tour of four representative wineries of the Lujan de Cuyo region of Mendoza continued at Kaiken Winery. Here we were treated to a walk in the fields to learn about the cultivation of the grapes.

Some of these vineyards contained vines seventy to a hundred years old; others were fairly recently planted.

Hail is a major hazard–in an area where climate is moderate, rainfall light, and irrigation pervasive, there are few hazards of grape growing; and vintages are consistent, year after year. The single major hazard is hail, which can fall hard and heavy, with hailstones as large as baseballs. Hail can ruin a crop in minutes. And so netting to protect the vines from hail, though expensive, is increasingly being used.

These vines are watered using water-saving drip irrigation. We also saw areas where the vines were irrigated in the traditional way through the use of irrigation ditches (acequias). The vines here had much heavier stems–they might have been older–but less abundant foliage. I don’t know how the grape production compares.

Everywhere, the early-summer grapes were beautiful.

In addition to tasting a number of Kaiken’s excellent wines, we were also given a taste of the wine still fermenting in the tank. It wasn’t grape juice any more; it was really wine! And–it was also excellent.

Next post: Bodegas Melipal and Sottano