Susana Balbo

0:12Hello and welcome to the special episode of the Monaco Weekly. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco and for today's show I speak with Argentina's first female winemaker, Susana Balbo. Her winery, located in Agrelo, at the foothills of the Andes Mountains of Mendoza, was founded in 1999. She stopped by a Midori house to discuss wine and her hotels too.

0:43Susana Badua, welcome to Monaco Radio. A pleasure to have you here because I know you're a legend of Argentinian winemaking as well. But first of all, I want to know, tell me your beginnings. When did you start becoming interested in wine, actually? Because I know you're the first Argentinian female winemaker. That's amazing. Well, thank you for having me today and to have the opportunity to talk a little bit about my long story. In fact, I study enologies because when it was the moment to go to college, to university, the military took over the government and was very dark moments in Argentina country, in the politician's situation.

1:31And I wanted to study physics in Instituto Balseiro in southern Argentina, in Bariloche, but was under the army management and my parents didn't allow me to go. I was only 17 years old. So in that way, I was looking for something that fulfilled my requirement for career because I really love chemistry, biology. I love physics, mathematics are very easy task for me. And also to be in contact with the nature. I was very curious about physics because we are energy. So that is why I wanted to study that. So I approached the Enology University. And really I liked the program. and with the dream that maybe in three years, when I was 20 or 21, I was able to go further in my career studying something deeper, the physics.

2:33However, the military government was in the government for eight years, so it was impossible to do that. And I graduated at university with a lot of passion about the waymaking because I have wonderful teachers, wonderful. And I fell in love with the career. It's very good, very suitable for women because you are able to have your family, to have your job, to pour your creativeness. So I'm glad that God put in my way this career because I devote my life to that. Amazing. You're quite successful at it as well. And tell us more about your wines and when did you actually launch your own kind of brand, the winery?

3:22I know you were born in Mendoza and I think that's still more or less where you're based, right? Yes, well, I was born in Mendoza. However, in Mendoza I didn't have an option to have a job because I was a woman, a female, and they offered only a lab working. And I already know in that moment, I really knew in that moment the love working was boring and very routine daily. So I decided not to take this kind of work because I was afraid to lose another opportunity in a better position. And a few months after, four or five months after, I was working meanwhile with my parents in a fabric of tablecloths and linens, working with them to have my job, one job.

4:21And then it was an advertising newspaper asking for a waymaker for northern Argentina, for Salta. This is 1 ,000 miles from my house. So I answered the requirement. I didn't fulfill the requirement, I must recognize, because they were asking for four years' experience, and I was just graduated. I graduated in June 1981, and I got a job in November. So it was just a few months after graduation. And I moved to Salta, working over there, and for me it was the second university, the university of the experience, exploring the limits you have in your creativeness to do something. Because it's a very isolated place, more than nowadays, 42 years ago.

5:19And I didn't have much resources. So I left my comfort zone in Mendoza to face a lot of new challenges, and I didn't know if I was prepared for that. But I did. I did. I was prepared because I managed how to solve problems with very limited research. I always make one example that gives to the people the picture of what I was living. In Cafayate, the fuel for cars were alcohol. And that produced in the distribution system some problems. And always my car was stopping for the distribution system. But every time I was going to the fitting place, they did in five minutes, ten minutes. And I told them, please, teach me how to do that.

6:13And I want to do it myself, because sometimes in the middle of the mountains, my car stopped. And I learned how to feed my car, and I learned how to feed pumps in the winery. So you explore talents you don't know you have. When you are in your corponzone, you call to, okay, I need a fitting for that, or I need somebody who can do something for electricity. And also I was repairing electricity stuff, everything. So you learn a lot and you become a person full of different skills that among your life is very useful. And I think that prepared me this 10 years I was in Cafajate, prepared me for the future I had after.

7:04That's amazing. And what a future, because besides, of course, the winery, you were involved in hospitality as well. I think that's a big part. And I want to know, when did you realize that? Because I know wine tourism in Argentina is quite important, actually, for the country's kind of hospitality scene, right? Yes. When I come back to Mendoza to work, I established a first winery and I failed because it was focused in domestic market. And you know, Argentina always, we are in the news for the economy problem. And in that moment, I faced the hyperinflation. I was a victim of a scam. And it really was a very tough moment.

7:47And I decided to travel all over the world to see what is going on in the wine industry, what happens in other countries that we don't have in Argentina. And I started bringing into Argentina new technologies, new procedures, new things, for new stuff for wineries and being one of the protagonists of the winemaking in Argentina wine industry and also in the management, how to manage the wines and the wineries and the vineyard and everything. And as well I realized the tourism was a very important task for wineries. For instance, in Italy, in Napa, in South Africa, everywhere people were developing very slowly because I'm talking about the 90s where the wine tourism was mild regarding what is today.

8:47So I had in my mind something that I could fulfill in the future but not in the moment I settled my company. When I established my second company in 1999 that was a successful one and only focus it in export, for me it was very natural to approach and to do something for tourism because we received a lot of foreigners, a lot of people that want to visit Mendoza, to be exposed to Argentina wines and to see what is going on. And I realized we didn't have very high-end hotels in Argentina. In Mendoza, we have a five-star hotel, but it's big ones without the charming, the very small boutique hotel where you feel you are at your home and you are nurtured for people that really look after you and they know your name, they know what you like, and they anticipate you and what you are going to need.

9:51and under this idea, under this philosophy, the luxury offer of a high quality stay with my daughter, we invested in one house I already had with very big garden, beautiful garden, with 6 ,000 square meters of garden, very mature garden and we built very small boutique hotels, seven suites and every suite is a spa. So the suite has a sauna, has a humid sauna, too. It's amazing. And also we have an art curation with local artists or Argentinian artists, very well-known and very good ones. So it's a great experience. In the hotel, it's not just a lodging. It's an experience. itself and very fine dining.

10:55So we opened one year ago and we are having great success. So we are very happy what we did and we are planning the second one now. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. I know, of course, you don't know all the information, but yeah, it's great news that you're planning to expand. Clearly something worked, right? Yes. The first hotel is situated in a very small town called Chakras de Coria. It's in the herd of Chakra de Korya with a lot of movement, restaurant, but it's a very peaceful place. It's very quiet and beautiful, but you are walking distance for more restaurants or art exposition and everything.

11:37The new one is going to be in the middle of the mountains, in a very special vineyard we are developing. It's organic and biodynamic, and also we are replanting native varieties of different flowers and plants in order to change the environment and to have more butterflies going, birds and everything, because we want to have something very, very special. So more than half of the land is just dedicated to the landscape and to create a very beautiful nature. And in the middle of the vineyard, in front of the mountain, is going to be 14 rooms, hotel with a spa as well. But it's 1 ,600 meters above sea level with the Andes Mountains in front of you.

12:31Beautiful landscape with snow in winter. It's a beautiful place. Really unique. That's amazing. And I just want to go back to your wines. I mean, you mentioned that it feels to me that it's quite export-led, right? So I know you have presence in Asia, in Europe. Is it still the case or do you also have some sort of domestic market for your wine? Because, of course, we hear the news that Argentina has a special kind of dollar rate for wine producers. But, you know, that's what we hear. But how is your wine doing at the moment? Are you trying to have some deals in other countries? I'm just curious if you could give us an update.

13:10Yeah, well, my first container loaded from my winery was to here, to London. Amazing. So I'm very grateful with the British market because UK people always, always have been very keen with my wines. I'm very happy. I came here pretty often and I had a great result here. And that encouraged me to approach other markets because your people is the most demanding in the world regarding wines. It's an explorer. They are very well educated about wines. They consume wines on a regular basis. So when you have success in London, you are ready to approach any other market in the world. So for me, it was a fantastic sign to be successful here since the very beginning.

14:02And it encouraged me to approach the United States as a second market. Then I opened other markets in Europe. Then I opened Brazil. Then I opened Asian markets. And we are in 34 markets right now. And nowadays, Argentina is facing some difficulties because the exchange rate, We really, the real exchange rate we receive is 50 % of the market value. And the problem is we are losing our competitiveness against other countries that has more stable economy. For instance, our neighbor, Chile, they only have 7 % inflation per year. And this year we are going to have 130%. And for 2024, the economies are forecasting more than 150 % of inflation.

15:00So it's very difficult to survive in that environment. So I'm really grateful to have foreign countries open because my expectation is in one moment the dollar is going to be in the real currency and to bring back the profitability and to be able to still keep the job for all the people because I feel we are a very sustainable company and we embrace the sustainability procedures. And among them is to look after your workers. Your workers are the main capital of the company. You can have the best technology, but if you don't have the best people, you cannot do nothing. So part of my success has been building beautiful teams and beautiful, very compromised people with the quality, with the details.

15:55And I really love them as my kids or my brothers or sisters because there are some people in my same age, but most of the people is at the age of my kids. And my two kids are working with me. And we are very aware about that. And when we face economical difficulties in Argentina, we are worried about the sustainability of the job of the people. During the pandemic, we didn't find any, any person. We reinvent all the jobs and everything, but everybody was getting their salary, their payment, without the government helping because we didn't want to receive government help on that. So today we are, I call, in the economy of war.

16:46So diminishing all the expenditure in something that is not about the quality of the wine, about to be the best services ever for our customers, and the latents and investments until it changes the wave in Argentina. because it's the only, I think it's the second biggest inflation in the world. The economy of war, that's interesting. Yeah, this is what I'm doing. Because, you know, we Argentinians are survivors. We are survivors. I survived two hyperinflations. I crossed so many difficulties. So it doesn't scare me, the situation. just aware me about what to do and plan the future in advance in order to be sure all the people is going to get their salary and payment on time and trying to follow the inflation in the actualization of the salary.

17:50We are improving the salary every two months to the people in order to have people getting the payment that they don't lose their capacity to have their income in the best situation as possible. And, Susan, I just want to ask as well, because you were telling me you also have some safari. Tell me more. You're a woman of many talents, I have to say. Tell us more about that part of the business. Well, talking about luxury travels, I've seen in South Africa air safaris. Very nice. I did by truck, not air, but the truck sometimes bothers a lot the animals and everything. So I approached the idea to have air safari, but not because in Argentina we don't have the jungle and the nature that South Africa has.

18:47or Africa, but we have beautiful lakes all over the mountains, all over the Cordillera de los Andes. You know, Cordillera de los Andes lasts for 4 ,000 kilometers in Argentina, in the west of Argentina. And we have the highest peak in America and one of the highest in the world, which is the Aconcagua. And also we have 7 ,000 meters above sea level. And also we have in Catamarca, the place is called the 6 ,000, because the more quantity of vulcans above the sea level are 6 ,000 meters and higher. All the biggest vulcans are under the sea. Over the sea, the concentration of vulcans is in Mendoza and Chile borders, and they are all together.

19:38and we are able to fly among the vulcans and seeing the salaris, I don't know in English, but the place where they produce salt, lithium, where they produce lithium, and we can see everything. We can see the wild llamas or the wild camels. It's amazing. It's something amazing because we are able to fly at 800 meters and oversee everything, or we can go crossing the Cordillera de los Andes because the plane is a water plane or amphibious, able to land in the water and also is able to cross the Cordillera de los Andes. Esos is the last technology plane for eight people, luxury one. And the water landing in the lakes in Argentina is amazing, absolutely amazing.

20:41We can approach the hotel or the lodge by water. For instance, we have a friend called Francis Malman that is very well known all over the world. and he has a beautiful island in southern Argentina, in La Plata, and we bring his customers with our water plane and we leave them just in front of the hotel. If they don't do with our plane, it's the only one in South America, they need to have six hours by truck and three hours by boat. And we do in 40 minutes with our plane. So it's amazing because people are coming from different parts of the world and doing the safaris, air safaris above the biggest glaciers in southern Argentina.

21:32You know, in between Chile and Argentina, we have one of the biggest resourcing glaciers in the world. You can see, like, touching. It's amazing. It's an amazing experience. So I invested in that to have with the hotel a fulfilled experience. So something that one person can go to enjoy the hotel in Chakras de Coria, do air safari, and then coming back and spend some time in the mountain, in the other hotel, visiting other wineries. Full experience of Argentina. Perfecto. Susana, thank you so much. Muchas gracias. Thank you very much. A pleasure, a pleasure talking to you. My pleasure. That was Argentinian winemaker Susana Balbo.

22:22The show was edited by Steph Chungo, and I am Fernando Gusto Pacheco.