Wine of the Week! 03/04/24

Don Rodolfo Art of the Andes Brut

Normally $15.99 / Now on Sale for $12.96
50% Chenin Blanc, 50% Trebbiano (Salta)

The Don Rodolfo Art of the Andes is a wine brand coming out of the Salta province in northern Argentina, celebrating the ecological, geological, and cultural benefits of living at the base of the spine of South America. They get their wines from different winemakers who either use their own grapes or source them from regional growers or even from vineyards on the other side of the Andes in Chile.

The people behind Don Rodolfo tie their wines into local art scenes in Mendoza and Buenos Aires. They’ve commissioned one such local artist to do their logos, and they donate money from wine sales to “a socio-economically diverse group of aspiring Argentinean artists.”

The grapes for this pleasant, light-bodied sparkler come from Luján de Cuyo just south of Mendoza. Protected by the Andes, the land around Mendoza is safer from the ravages of Climate Change than other areas, making it a Brigadoon-like wine region. The region’s vineyards are irrigated by fresh water from Andes snow melt, which gets efficiently drained by the loose sandy soil that lies on top of clay and rock. Such conditions in these high altitude vineyards conspire to balance the ample juice of this white’s Chenin Blanc and Trebbiano with a crisp acidity.