His grandparents already grew grapes, and his grandfather collaborated on an important Argentine textbook on wine. Yet Fernando Barberá had to work very hard to get where he is today: in the Portillo wineries.
Text SABINA POSTHUMUS / Image SALENTEIN
In terms of litres and bottles, Argentina is the leading wine-producing country in South America. All wineries combined - and there are over two thousand of them - produce as much as 15 million hectolitres a year. Mendoza is the main wine region; over 75 per cent of Argentine wine comes from here. The vineyards are located in the south of the region, with the Andes as the western border. This is where the Barberá family built a new life, as emigrants from Spain. Grandpa and grandma grew olives and wine grapes; young Fernando enjoyed helping them. 'I was always outside,' he recalls. 'On Sundays, I helped pick olives or tend the vines.'
Firm conversation
His grandfather was a major contributor to the standard work on winemaking in Argentina. And that book was, how coincidentally, on Fernando's study programme years later, when he enrolled at university in Mendoza. 'Getting a bad grade in my test automatically meant a tough talk with dad,' says Fernando. Not that that happened often: all eights and nines on his report card. 'I always knew I was going to make wine, no doubt about it. But it's never been easy.'
Fernando combined four years of solid study with hands-on learning. 'Everyone who wants to become a winemaker works for a few months at harvest time to gain experience. Preferably at prestigious houses, because that's where you can learn the most. I started as an intern at Salentein in 2012. I stood in the cellar and checked the grapes coming in. The following year, I was assigned to Salentein's laboratory. There, chemical analyses are carried out: what is the sugar content of the grapes, what is the phenolic ripeness and acidity? Long days, we work until late, including weekends.'
'Perfect grapes!'
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Deutsch