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Alberto Antonini: “I dream that it will be sold a Pedriel or an Agrelo”

15.MAR.11, 19:32 Alberto Antonini is the most influential Italian in the world enology. In his first visit to our country, he fell in love with Argentina, specially, with the ancient vineyards of malbec; which express the better thing of the varietal worldwide. At present, Antonini advises to diverse wineries installed in Argentina, where the emblem of the local varietal appears as the principal star.

As Michel Rolland and Paul Hobbes, Antonini is a flying winemaker that possesses own projects and advises to numerous warehouses in Mendoza besides some others in Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia. Nowadays, he orientates professionally to more than forty wineries. Alberto came for the first time to our province in 1995, since then he visits the land of the malbec every year. This Italian founded the consulting Matura in his natal country in 2003 and Matura América Latina in Mendoza years later.

Thanks to the search of character for the Argentine wine, there arose in the wine national industry the incorporation of external advisers in order which the same ones find competent differentiations worldwide.
Negocios y Economía met in Bodega Renacer with Alberto Antonini, who enumerated different aspects of a company that is giving his first steps in international matter to manage to position the local wine among the best in the world.

What would there be necessary to give a concrete personality to the Argentine wine?
The personality of a wine is given by the land, that place where the wine is produced expresses his natural characteristics from a soil, a microclimate, of vineyards framed inside an enology with few human intervention achieve that the wine is sincere and authentic of origin, a micro-region.
The malbec transformed in the flag of the national wine thanks to the different lands. Would there be necessary to achieve bigger diversity in the Argentine wine?
The diversity is not achieved introducing more varieties of grape, but it is achieved through a better appreciation of the multiple origins and regions that we find in Argentina; as is it happens in the Old World, where exist scant varieties of lands and the wines sell with own names. My dream, it is that Argentina in twenty years it sells a Perdriel, an Agrelo, a Vista Flowers, instead of, only, a malbec. The Argentinian malbec is friendly of good structure with a soft tannin but also it is fresh, mineral and vibrant, which calls, powerfully, the attention of the consumer. Singular aspects that separate it from other wines, more flattened, originals of countries of the New World, which exhaust. The Argentine wine enjoys a natural acidity, thanks to the thermal extent of its lands, which turns it too interesting to accompany meals.

Which would be the way to follow in the development of the malbec?
The concept varietal is very dangerous because it transforms in a commodity and it settles into the whole world thanks of the success of Argentina. We should struggle not to fall down only in the structure of the varietal himself, because, sooner or later, it transforms in a bulk freight and falls down. There would be necessary to speak about regions, zones, names to sell the great nature that possesses the country. The honesty is not obtained selling a variety, but selling a place that does not have equal in the world. It is a long and difficult process, but it is the great value that possesses Europe.

New World vs Old World
The trend for discriminating development and final production between the Old World and the New World enologic grew with the time. Antonini is original of Italy, country that nowadays is the principal exporter of wines worldwide.

Which was the key in order that Italy occupies this place on the market?
In the antiquity, Italy was called Enotria (the land of wine) because it is the only country of the world where wine takes place in any region, from east to west and from north to south. It possesses the biggest variety of the world, so it produces very different wines between them. In addition, there are small producers (smaller than a hectare) that offer a very wide range of products.
The small producers from Mendoza are like the Europeans: small families which hectares (two or three) take care like their own children, in big densities of vineyards it turns out difficult to handle.
The quantity of vineyards between eighty and hundred years of antiquity is fantastic. Few countries are compared in antiquity of plantation. I remained in Mendoza because I fell in love with his vineyards, they are uniques.

What you think about the replacement of the name of his original vine-stock "cot" (from Cahors's zone) for the term "malbec" in France?
Really, I surprised because the French men always defended his names and it is correct, the variety turns a commodity, because it is possible to cultivate in any place of the world. When I listen to them naming malbec is surprising because, traditionally, they have been in opposition to the concept varietal.
Logically, the intention is to take advantage of the success of the Argentine malbec to give push to the original vine-stock (cot) produced in Cahors, south of France. There, more rustic wines come from, without much body, product of a climate very different from the typical one of the zone where the malbec is cultivated here. It means that Argentina worked very well.
In relation to the wine practices applied in the principal producing cities of wines, do you find many differences?
The world reduced a lot, before the differences reigned. Fifteen years behind, the enology of Argentina was more traditional, today it transformed. This innovation in technology does not assure quality in wines, but yes choosing potential places to elaborate wines with high qualitative degrees. This site assembles all the conditions: climates, soils, really special vineyards. I do not share with those countries that use enologics technologies, simply, to introduce the wine on markets.
It is necessary to educate the consumer in order that he learns the existing differences between different enologics regions of the world, not to prioritize the needs of this one to the moment to create the wine. It must to be reported the regions, persons, culture, tradition that form every bottle and get qualified consumers to face the wine production.
The wine is not only a liquid to be drunk, it is a way that allows to know to the world. The wine represents different places of the world with Argentinian identity, French personality, Italian elegance and others. If it takes place under the industrial logic it does not teach anything, is elaborated as a drink that answers to strict standards of markets.

Practices with personality
In his last visit, the Italian advised to return to the bases of production of wines. Principally, highlighting the qualities that have the organic wines, it recommended practices so traditional as surprising, such as the use of sinks without epoxi, in direct contact with cement and where the broths present numerous particularities.

You are a faithful defending of the organic production of wines, from the use of indigenous yeasts until cement sink
An organic natural consumption offers better quality of grape. It is demonstrated in products cultivated in our own home, the flavor is better than the bought in a supermarket, it does not possess any stabilizers or preservative. The same thing happens with the wine, it is elaborated in a natural way. In addition, the environmental care is promoted.
The enologics practices teach " as a joke ". You learn that the nature is mistaken and how to arrange it. An organic culture stimulates and accompanies natural defenses of plants, using the smallest possible proportion of chemical products. I have got ideal yeasts of grape (indigenous yeasts) and I want that they enter the winery to develop a microbiological process that favors to the wine. There are elements that accompany this process efficiently: wood, cement without epoxi and others that allow to a winery have a "good pollution".
The big wines are not done in hospitals, where everything is sterile due to the sick people. A winery is not thought for any sick people, there must be life. If you place your head inside a tank of stainless steel there is neither smell nor life; on the contrary, if you place it inside a cement sink without epoxy, there is smell of life, of wine. They destroy the personality, identity and character to the wine.

How the Argentinian consumer recover the passion that he had for the wine for years?
It is essential that he understands what there is behind a bottle: the place and culture of the people where it is manufactured. The expression of all these elements generates more satisfactions and makes understanding the diversity that surround the liquid. It is necessary to respect the wines. It is not possible to hope that all the wines are done like one would like because it is the result of different expressions, as the music or as the same art. To think in the wine as Culture.

Flying winemaker of more than forty wineries in different countries.
It was born in Italy, in a city near to Florence.
He is, together with Michel Rolland and Paul Hobbs, one of the flying winemaker more respected of the world
He has a doctorate in Agricultural Studies of Florencia's University and titles of Enology in Bordeaux and California's University.

By:
Federico Lancia and Gustavo Flores Bazán

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