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DEVELOPMENT
In Mendoza,
the land and the climate led the Spanish conquerors to
cultivate the first vines, opening the way for introducing the
first strains of vines. This spread through the Cuyo region,
until it was consolidated in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. It was the era of the Creole winemaking, with its
main centre in Mendoza and the consumer markets in Cordoba,
Santa Fe and Buenos Aires, among others. Heavy roads or troops
of mules led by the muleteers were responsible for the transport
of the wine in leather or ceramic containers protected with
bulrush. Finally, in that way the wine would cross the thousand
kilometres between Cuyo and the coast to be
commercialised.
This trade used to be conducted between two political units:
Mendoza was the capital of the province of Cuyo, depending on the Viceroyalty of the Kingdom
of Chile, and its products would leave the region to supply the
Government in Buenos Aires, which depended directly on the
Viceroyalty of Peru.
During the last decades of the sixteenth century and the first
of the seventeenth the first wineries and
vineyards appeared in Mendoza. Some reached considerably important dimensions for
the period.
Some of this vineyards and wineries belonged to: Alonso de Reinoso (sixteenth
century), Alonso de Videla, Juan Amaro and Antonio Moyano
Cornejo (seventeenth century).
The presence of these wineries in Mendoza was truly remarkable
for the time. The residents of this small village had an
establishment with a capacity to develop and retain 5,000 litres
in the sixteenth century; later on, in the first half of the
seventeenth century, at least three wineries were built, which
together had a capacity of more than 130,000 litres of wine.
As for the vineyards, it is estimated that the total cultivated
area in the seventeenth century would reach around 20 hectares.
During colonial times, and until mid-nineteenth century, the
winemaking process was rudimentary; it was done in small amounts
and was domestic in nature. The winery was a small area
associated to the houses, often an isolated room or sometimes,
attached to the house, with thick adobe walls and few openings
to make it withstand large thermal amplitudes between day and
night. The roofs, with little slope could be shed or gable like,
were formed by rafters of chañar or carob, covered with reeds
and mud tiles.
Under these rudimentary buildings, the winemaking would begin
with the crushing of the grapes in the manual presses. Those
usually were a structure made with bovine leather and wood. Then
an artisanal method would be used: the grapes were mashed ¨a
pata¨ with the feet in those cow or ox leather presses. Once the
must was ready, it was dropped through the tail of the animal,
which worked as a conduct, and while the grapes were being
mashed, this hole was blocked with a wood plug. The must and the
skins were then collected in leather buckets, called ¨noques¨,
fitted with rings through which two wood sticks were put, which
would allow the winemakers to transport them to the cellar. Once
there, the liquid was poured into large clay vessels, where the
fermentation would occur. The vessels were conveniently placed
on logs of trees, lying parallel on the dirt floor to allow good
ventilation. After the fermentation, the new wine was
transferred to the maintenance vessels, this process used to be
done simply by gravitation, by removing the wood plug from the
fermentation jug. During this manoeuvre, a sieve or strainer
made of leather with holes would be used, so that the wine would
be separated from the seeds, the skins and other impurities.
Once filled the conservation jug with the new wine, it would be
sealed with a lid of lime, clay or plaster, to prevent the entry
of any foreign body. The wine was then left to rest or age until
it was taken away.
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