Irrigation

The old vineyards of Mendoza do not use automatic drip irrigation but rely instead on irrigation canals first built by the Huarpe Indians a thousand years ago to capture the constant flow of melting snow from the eternally white-capped peaks of the Andes, thus creating an oasis of green in the desert that was Mendoza. The sandy gravel affords excellent drainage and is ideal for vines. At times, old vineyards have used to good advantage their ancient water rights in order to flood the dormant vines each winter for two to three weeks under a foot of water. This curious procedure has no effect whatever on the vines at that time of year but it does drown potential vine pests in the earth such as the phylloxera beetle, thus maintaining the health of the vines ecologically.