In the heart of the Mendoza province, in its vineyards located in the Uco Valley, Bodegas Salentein has begun to transform wine making in Argentina.
The bodega is located at an elevation of 1.200 meters (4.000 feet), right in the vineyard’s center. More than 49 hectares (121 acres), of native desert habitat were preserved and are a part of the bodega’s everyday landscape. The western horizon is dominated by the close snowy Andes, which have an elevation of over 6.100 meters (20.000 feet). The magnificent bodega was designed taking into account two aspects: the shape and the function.
The cross shape facilitates a careful management of the grape and the wine, while it allows a reduction of the path that both the fruits and their product traverse throughout the stages of the process. Each wing is itself a little bodega with two levels. In the first one, stainless steel tanks and French oak casks enable fermentation and storage. While, in the subterranean level, the wine is aged in oak barrels.
Both floors allow the circulation of the tanks’ liquid to the barrels through a traditional system of gravity transference. The four wings converge in a circular central chamber, similar to an amphitheater, built inspired in the classic temples of antiquity.
