Well, ladies and gentlemen, the announcement you’ve all been waiting for (or at least the announcement I’ve been dying to give):

I got a job!

And I am so very excited to become a productive member of society again.

I’m pretty thrilled - it’s a great job, the one that I’ve been hoping for since my first week down here, although it’s vastly different from what I was expecting to find when I arrived in Argentina. I came down here with a certain vision in mind, one that had been stewing in my head for a while: I was going to live in Buenos Aires and work as a sommelier someplace hip, like the Hotel Faena, where I did in fact have a successful interview. The idea was to have fun, get some more service experience, meet people interested in wine, and then take it from there and see what I could come up with. Never did I think I’d find a ‘real’ job, a truly stimulating, career building opportunity with an innovative company, especially not in my first month here. That wasn’t really part of the plan.

However, when I was in Mendoza shortly after my arrival in Argentina, I came across a potential opportunity so appealing and so appropriate for me that it changed everything. Believe it or not I’m even excited to leave Buenos Aires and create a life for myself in Mendoza. Who would’a thunk it? I’m looking forward to living in a small city, so close to the mountains, with so much vibrant wine-related activity. (For some background on Mendoza, check out the post I wrote before my last trip there.)

Those of you who have been paying close attention to my blog may have noticed several links in the past few weeks (hints, if you will) to The Vines of Mendoza. Here is another one - take a look around if you’re curious, ’cause that’s where I’ll be working as of next week, and there is a lot going on there! Of course as usual I’m here to tell you all about it in my own words, with the help of some links to specific parts of their site.

To tell the truth this wasn’t all entirely out of the blue; I had been forwarded the posting for this job when I was still in the United States. At the time I didn’t do much more than skim it and take a peak at the website - it was in Mendoza, after all, and I’ve taken so much pride the past few years from being a “Big City Boy.” I wanted to live in BA, to be part of the new wave of restaurants and wine culture here… but the company looked interesting enough that I sent an introductory email to try to set up a meeting when I was in town and satisfy my curiousity. That was about all it took for my plans to begin to change.

For the purposes of my explanation here, there are three parts to The Vines of Mendoza. Let’s start with the tasting room, for it is THE tasting room - in Mendoza if not all of Argentina. Besides being sexy as hell, it is expertly run; they offer various wine flights, and the staff can tell you just about anything you’d want to know about the wines. And we’re talking about the best wines around, some of which you can’t find many other places besides the winery. I’m looking forward to spending time there next week and filling out my knowledge of the wine list! There are events every Wednesday and Friday; the week I was there I attended a Winemaker night on Wednesday and an exploration of Argentina’s sparkling wines on Friday evening. Both were very cool, and informative, even for me - they know how to hit all the bases.

The tasting room is also an ‘information center’ - they’ll tell you where to taste, depending on what you’re looking for, and help you find your way around Mendoza. If you’re nice, they’ll even lend you a hand planning it all out, and help with reservations. And believe me, every wine tourist in Mendoza passes through there at least once… with luck I shouldn’t have any trouble making new friends.

Next, of course, is the website, which is going to be my virtual home for the foreseeable future, although I promise I’ll do my best to stay consistent on here, too. It is a font of information about Mendoza and the local wine; more importantly, it also contains the The Vines Wine Shop and the Acequia Wine Club. As of next Monday, I am the Product Manager for these lofty online digs. In a nutshell, I’ll be in charge of both sourcing the wines and selling them directly to customers online; luckily my lovely predecessor, Sarah, is sticking around for a couple of weeks to show me the ropes.

The store is one of the best laid-out I’ve seen online - the selection is both extensive and highly focused. You can shop by varietal, price, region, brand, and even style; you can purchase by the bottle, case, or flight. The wine club is also very exciting, and I can’t wait to leave my mark on it. There are 2 tiers to choose from - the Acequia Wine Club and Acequia Reserva, and the wine is shipped 4 times a year. Acequia ships 6 bottles at a time for US$145, the Reserva 4-6 bottles (depending on the wines chosen) for US$245; they both arrive with a newsletter, Mendoza travel tips, and local recipes - and you get comped the top flight of wine if/when you make it to the tasting room. My primary job will be to grow the club, so hey, guys - let me know if you’re interested!

The third part of The Vines of Mendoza is the newest, and certainly the most innovative - Private Vineyard Estates. They are offering for sale parcels (4 - 12 acres) of their new vineyard in the Valle de Uco, which contains some of the last virgin wine-growing land in Mendoza (or anywhere else for that matter) and also some of the most picturesque. The wine is created by a partnership of the owner of the plot and The Vines’ team of enologists and consultants; the owner chooses the grapes, and the enologists help to cultivate them. Every step of the process is a collaboration, and at the end up to 10,000 bottles a year are entirely the owner’s, or some of the grapes can be sold to offset the upkeep of the vineyard. There is also a 5-star resort in the works, to be build on the vineyard, which is set to open by 2010.

All in all - pretty cool, huh?

So it’s done, my ticket to Mendoza purchased - I leave on Sunday. Time to have a life again! (And heads-up - I’ll have a new phone, too.) As exciting as that is, it’s also frightening; I’ve been on my own moving around the world for almost 5 full months now, with very little responsibility; across the United States, through South-Western Europe, and in Argentina. It will be a challenge to ’settle down,’ even somewhere as exotic as Mendoza, but I’m sure it will also be amazing.

Now that we know where I’ll be, you can all start making plans to come visit.

November 20th, 2007 | vita, vino