“Our philosophy is to combine our deep knowledge of Argentina’s diverse terroirs and our team’s talent in expressing the unique characteristics of each varietal, soil and climate through our winemaking.”
Susana Balbo With a restless spirit and strong convictions, Susana Balbo challenged the social conventions of the time and decided to become professional in winemaking. In this way in 1981 she received a degree in Oenology with honors, becoming the first winemaker woman in Argentina.
Susana is a very creative winemaker, for instance, for premium wine production, Susana chooses concrete eggs for fermenting vessels. The egg’s porous concrete breathes like oak yet allows the wine to develop as if it were made in stainless steel. The resulting wine has a pure expression of fruit with a richer, more complex mouth feel.
She creates elegant wines with an artistic and daring touch. The wide variety of styles highlights Susana’s skills as an oenologist. The secret of Susana is to give the wines their special touch to enhance the character of the grape and at the same time highlight the typicity of the Terroir.
Bellow you will find 5 must-known facts about Susana Balbo wines
1 – PIONEERING SPIRIT
Susana became the first female enologist in Argentina after graduating with honors from Don Bosco University in Mendoza, in 1981. Due to the male-dominated industry, her first job took her north, to Salta, where she changed Argentine wine history with her first vintage of premium Torrontés.
2- INNOVATIVE WINEMAKING
Susana continually seeks innovative ways to enhance her winemaking, from experimenting with barrel volumes (160L through 6,500L) to testing wild vs cultured yeasts. For premium wine production, Susana chooses diverse fermenting vessels, including porous concrete eggs, roll fermenters, pressurized barrels, and anforas, among others.
3- LEADING THE INDUSTRY
Susana Balbo has been an influential leader in Argentine wine not only with her own projects at Susana Balbo Wines (SBW) but also as elected President of Wines of Argentina (Argentina’s international trade promotion organization). At WofA, Susana has been elected by her industry peers three times due to her work ethic, visionary leadership, and dedication to the success of Argentine wine worldwide.
4- FAMILY TIES
In 2011 and 2012, Susana’s son José and daughter Ana joined to help build SBW to where it is today. José helps Susana as a key member of the winemaking team alongside his role as Export Manager. Ana is SBW’s Marketing Manager as well as General Manager of the winery’s restaurants.
5- PUSHING THE LIMITS
Susana continuously seeks uncharted territory in the wine world to see what limits can be tested. Most recently, Susana has delved into making unique white wines with great personality and terroir character- wines like the Susana Balbo Barrel Fermented Torrontés and Susana Balbo White Blend, both from Altamira. The Torrontés is not only the first of its kind, but harvested from a previously unproven terroir for Torrontés in the Uco Valley, and the White Blend has been recognized as one of the great and most innovative Argentine white wines.
Susana Balbo Wines offers the possibility of discovering, on the one hand, the typical varietals of Argentina and, on the other, innovative author wines through thematic tastings focused on discovering the charm of each one. It offers a wide variety of entertaining activities for all tastes: Crios, BenMarco, Susana Balbo and Nosotros. Discover more about Susana Balbo and other wine tours in our webpage.
