One of the most celebrated vintners of all time, the legendary Philippine de Rothschild, once famously commented that for anyone entering the wine business, the first 200 years are the most difficult. After that, growing grapes and making fine wines becomes easier, she said.
Serial entrepreneur Jon Malinski, a part-time Excelsior resident, finds solace in those words when facing hurdles in his own nascent career as a winemaker. In 2002, Malinski and his wife Arlene were looking for a new challenge when they bought a struggling winery called Piattelli Vineyards in Mendoza, Argentina.
Jon Malinski, has owned a number of successful businesses over the years, starting with Richfield-based Copy Duplicating Products, which he sold to IKON Office Solutions 20 years ago. Other ventures have included a cattle ranch and housing subdivision in Wyoming, raising bison in Lakeville, and a Russian telecom business. But he was a newcomer to the wine business.
The Malinskis, who spend summers in Excelsior and winters in Arizona, were visiting Argentina on other business when they heard about the winery for sale. It was struggling financially, due to problems caused by a national currency crisis and a “meltdown” in the country’s economy, Jon Malinski says. At first, they bought 50 percent ownership in the vineyard, and then acquired the rest of the business in 2008.
Argentina itself was part of the appeal of the new venture. “Argentina is a beautiful country; the people are wonderful, and we feel safe down there,” Jon explains.
Arlene adds, “It didn’t take us long to fall in love with the country.”
Piattelli Vineyards occupies approximately 150 acres in Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, and approximately 500 acres in Cafayate, in the remote Salta region of northwest Argentina. Eleven years after buying the Mendoza winery, the Malinskis acquired additional land and opened a second winery in 2013.
Argentina is fifth in the world in wine production, and relatively little of its wine is exported to other countries, Jon notes. “That led me to believe there was a good opportunity to export, if the quality was there,” he says.
With production overseen by the vineyard’s principal winemaker Valeria Antolin, Piattelli’s wines are mid-priced, usually $12 to $25 a bottle. Piattelli has also become one of Argentina’s top 10 exporters of malbec, cabernet and torrontes wines. The wines are distributed in the Twin Cities and nationally and internationally.
Piattelli Vineyards has received a number of industry awards since releasing its first vintage about 10 years ago. It has also been given top ratings from a number of industry publications including Wine Spectator—which chose one of Piattelli’s offerings among its 100 top wines for 2015—and others. Piattelli’s line includes a special run of 3,000 cases of artisanal wine made from hand-picked and hand-pressed grapes (rather than processed using machinery), fermented in French oak barrels and stored in bottles for 18 months before release.
The land acquired by the Malinskis in 2008, where they planted 100 hectares of new vines, will not produce suitable wine-making grapes until “2021 at the earliest, more likely 2022,” Jon explains. Their wines are now exported to nine countries, and they plan to expand, with planned production of about 120,000 cases of wine this year.
Looking back at his first decade-plus in the wine business, Jon Malinski continues to savor the exotic challenge of growing top-quality grapes and turning them into fine wines. “There’s a saying, ‘How do you make a small fortune in the wine business? Start with a big fortune,’ ” he says, laughing. “There were a lot of struggles for us in the beginning, but the wine business has great appeal to those who have the patience to weather a five- to eight-year storm when you’re first getting into the business. You have to really understand what you’re getting into, and have a lot of capital. Weather also plays a big part—rain, cold weather and hail—things you don’t anticipate in the very beginning.”
Visit grapetravel.com to check out Jon and Arlene Malinski’s travel guide for Argentina. You can also keep up wtih the vineyard on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
