ARGENTINA FACES COMPETITION CRISIS
3rd May, 2013 by Gabriel Savage
Soaring grape prices and an overvalued peso have raised concerns about the ability of Argentina to compete at the lower end of the bottled wine market.
According to a new report by Rabobank, some wineries are reporting an increase in production costs of more than 100% during the last four years, with raised labour costs primarily responsible for a 115% increase in average wine grape prices.
With the average export price of bottled wine going up by only 60%, the report highlighted the likelihood of a “rapid deterioration in profitability.”
Commenting on the current situation, Rabobank analyst Valeria Mutis remarked: “The competitiveness of Argentine wine exports is being undermined.”
Pointing to the squeeze on margins, she outlined the problems posed by the country’s wider economic problems. “Whilst official figures set the inflation rate at approximately 11% per year, private estimates put the yearly inflation rate at 25%,” reported Mutis.
“Although the Argentine peso has weakened, this devaluation has been less than the inflation rate, and this has hurt the sector’s competitiveness abroad.”
With a growing gap between official and black market exchange rates, commentators expect a “steep devaluation” of the peso, although they feel this is unlikely to occur before the end of 2013 “at the earliest.”
Against this uncertain backdrop, Rabobank suggested that basing a strategy on currency devaluation alone would be “particularly risky,” especially for smaller companies.
Instead, it recommended that Argentine producers consider bottling in their export markets as a means of protecting margins.
However, Mutis acknowledged the challenge of finding the right bottling partner, warning of “potential conflicts of interest, volume requirements and or relinquishing brand ownership.”
Nevertheless, she concluded that such an approach “appears to offer a way to establish a presence in important export markets and to continue to grow the mid-tier brands without significant investment, and without risking significant capital.”
Responding to the report’s findings, Alberto Arizu, head of Bodega Luigi Bosca, told the drinks business: “We agree that a devaluation would not be the way if there is no concrete plan to reduce inflation in production costs and cost in general.”
Acknowledging that “due to deteriorating margins, Argentine wineries lost export stimuli on entry labels,” Arizu maintained that the country remains competitive at high price segments, “although with a significant deterioration in profit margins.”
To balance these margin concerns, he remarked: “Argentina remains strong in terms of demand in some markets (USA, Latin America and China), so that a change in some of these variables could position the country well again.”
For the moment, Arizu confirmed that efforts are being made to maximise Argentina’s ability to compete with other wine producing countries, with companies scrutinising “not only production costs and labour, but also in logistics costs that impact a lot on this industry.”
“We must learn to wait and keep working,” he concluded.
Source: The Drinks Business
ARGENTINA FACES COMPETITION CRISIS
3rd May, 2013 by Gabriel Savage
Soaring grape prices and an overvalued peso have raised concerns about the ability of Argentina to compete at the lower end of the bottled wine market.
According to a new report by Rabobank, some wineries are reporting an increase in production costs of more than 100% during the last four years, with raised labour costs primarily responsible for a 115% increase in average wine grape prices.
With the average export price of bottled wine going up by only 60%, the report highlighted the likelihood of a “rapid deterioration in profitability.”
Commenting on the current situation, Rabobank analyst Valeria Mutis remarked: “The competitiveness of Argentine wine exports is being undermined.”
Pointing to the squeeze on margins, she outlined the problems posed by the country’s wider economic problems. “Whilst official figures set the inflation rate at approximately 11% per year, private estimates put the yearly inflation rate at 25%,” reported Mutis.
“Although the Argentine peso has weakened, this devaluation has been less than the inflation rate, and this has hurt the sector’s competitiveness abroad.”
With a growing gap between official and black market exchange rates, commentators expect a “steep devaluation” of the peso, although they feel this is unlikely to occur before the end of 2013 “at the earliest.”
Against this uncertain backdrop, Rabobank suggested that basing a strategy on currency devaluation alone would be “particularly risky,” especially for smaller companies.
Instead, it recommended that Argentine producers consider bottling in their export markets as a means of protecting margins.
However, Mutis acknowledged the challenge of finding the right bottling partner, warning of “potential conflicts of interest, volume requirements and or relinquishing brand ownership.”
Nevertheless, she concluded that such an approach “appears to offer a way to establish a presence in important export markets and to continue to grow the mid-tier brands without significant investment, and without risking significant capital.”
Responding to the report’s findings, Alberto Arizu, head of Bodega Luigi Bosca, told the drinks business: “We agree that a devaluation would not be the way if there is no concrete plan to reduce inflation in production costs and cost in general.”
Acknowledging that “due to deteriorating margins, Argentine wineries lost export stimuli on entry labels,” Arizu maintained that the country remains competitive at high price segments, “although with a significant deterioration in profit margins.”
To balance these margin concerns, he remarked: “Argentina remains strong in terms of demand in some markets (USA, Latin America and China), so that a change in some of these variables could position the country well again.”
For the moment, Arizu confirmed that efforts are being made to maximise Argentina’s ability to compete with other wine producing countries, with companies scrutinising “not only production costs and labour, but also in logistics costs that impact a lot on this industry.”
“We must learn to wait and keep working,” he concluded.
Source: The Drinks Business
Malbec, leader in the US consumers’ preferences
April 19, 2013
Whereas Chardonnay is losing ground, according to a research conducted by Napa Technology in the United States.
According to a study carried out by Napa Technology, the consumption of Malbec, as well as of Pinot Noir, Spanish varietals, and sparkling wines, is on the up. The great Spanish population also contributes to this fact. On the contrary, Chardonnay consumption is decreasing, as it was stated by 40% of 90 respondents, including people of the United States industry.
The downturn registered in the Chardonnay consumption is due to diners’ leaning towards other white varieties, such as Spanish Albariño and Argentine Torrontés.
As Napa Technology revealed, the great Spanish-speaking population and the rise in the consumption of Spanish food are two important factors that contribute to the growth observed in these grape varieties. However, Malbec is still the leader, according to 58.9% of the respondents.
Nonetheless, nowadays, sparkling wine consumption is rising. In the survey, 37% of respondents maintained that Brachetto, Cava and Prosecco remain growing. One of the reasons could be the improvement in the range of products. Simultaneously, Pinot Noir consumption is also going up.
Moreover, the study shows that whereas Millennials are driving trends in the wine business, Baby Boomers still represent the largest market for wine.
Source: Winesur
92 Sottano 2011 Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina ($17)
Deep ruby color; ripe and generous with juicy plum, bright acidity and great lift; round, polished and loaded with flavor; long and balanced.
DANGEROUS WINE GROUP
Source: The Tasting Panel Magazine
92 Sottano 2011 Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina ($17)
Deep ruby color; ripe and generous with juicy plum, bright acidity and great lift; round, polished and loaded with flavor; long and balanced.
DANGEROUS WINE GROUP
Source: The Tasting Panel Magazine
92 Sottano 2011 Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina ($17)
Deep ruby color; ripe and generous with juicy plum, bright acidity and great lift; round, polished and loaded with flavor; long and balanced.
DANGEROUS WINE GROUP
Source: The Tasting Panel Magazine
88 Soleca Chardonnay, Central Valley, Chile ($12)
Juicy and bright with clean, smooth flavors of pear and citrus; fresh and balanced.
DANGEROUS WINE GROUP
Source: The Tasting Panel Magazine
From the April issue of Anthony Dias Blue's, The Tasting Panel
92 Sottano 2011 Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina ($17)
Deep ruby color; ripe and generous with juicy plum, bright acidity and great lift; round, polished and loaded with flavor; long and balanced.
DANGEROUS WINE GROUP
88 Soleca Chardonnay, Central Valley, Chile ($12)
Juicy and bright with clean, smooth flavors of pear and citrus; fresh and balanced.
DANGEROUS WINE GROUP
Source: The Tasting Panel Magazine
2011 Sottano Malbec Classico Mendoza
Medium red-ruby. Primary aromas and flavors of crushed blackberry, plum, licorice, mocha and pepper. Sweet, generous and fine-grained; in an elegant style but with plenty of varietal intensity. Perked up by insidious peppery acidity. Finishes long and scented, with suave tannins, a suggestion of wildness and excellent lift. Superb value!
Source: Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar
From Stephen Tanzer, Issue 167: March/April 2013 > New Releases from Argentina
Source: Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar
What does the new generation look for?
February 22, 2013
The twelve international judges taking part in the Argentina Wine Awards gave their vision of how to reach and promote the wine to this new target public.
A new edition of the Successful Wines and Styles Seminar was held at the Sheraton Mendoza, during the Argentina Wine Awards contest, organized by Wines of Argentina and Coviar.
As every year, the aim of this seminar is to present twelve successful wines in the countries the international judges come from, giving key informational about those markets concerning trends and opportunities.
Under the motto “Next Generation”, Wines of Argentina invited Eduardo Milan (Brazil), Shang Huang (China), Ursula Greiger (Switzerland), Joe Roberts (United States), Tom Firth (Canada), Harshah Shah (India), Moon Song Bang (Korea), José Luis Ruiz Santos (Spain), Emily O Hare (United kingdom), Omar Barbosa (Mexico), Alessandro Torcoli (Italy), and Laura Rhys (United Kingdom),who shared their vision of the new generation and their opinion about the markets they come from.
Muscat and a bit more
The first panel included Eduardo Milan (Brazil) and Shan Huang (China).
Milan stressed that Brazil has not wine culture yet. This is why sweet and easy-to-drink wines are the hottest in this market. So, in this opportunity he presented a very fresh Muscat-based sparkling wine.
Moreover, Shan Huang spoke about the Chinese wine market and winemaking. In her opinion, this is a great opportunity for wines from Argentina and the world to get introduced into the Asian giant.
Then, she explained that in China, income standards have raised considerably in the past 30 years. Therefore, the lifestyle of its people has become more hedonistic and this is the point where Argentine appears on stage.
How to reach young consumers?
Throughout the seminar, from their different visions, the international judges tried to answer this question on the basis of their own experiences. During the second panel, Ursula Greiger (Switzerland), Joe Roberts (United States), Tom Firth (Canada), spoke about the current possibilities.
Roberts posed: how to make a wine capture the young public. The expert concluded that young consumers consider the combination of story, price, and quality. “Young people look for uniqueness and they drink wine socially, not to pair with food”. Likewise, he stressed the fact that wineries should be online.
As regards the Canadian market, Tom Firth commented that its consumers know about wine. “A standard Canadian spends an average between USD 15 to USD 20, reason for which it is a very good opportunity for Argentine wine to penetrate the market.”
Ursula Geiger (Switzerland) presented the wine Petit Arvine (white) and highlighted the chances of Torrontés of being an established and authentic wine in Switzerland.
Story and fruit
One of the points that the second panel -Harshal Shah (India), Moon Song Bang (Korea), José Luis Ruiz Santos (Spain) and Emily O Hare (United Kingdom)- agreed on was the fact that the wine should be accompanied with a story.
Many of the guests maintained that the new generation is still looking for a story along with a label. This way, Emily O’ Hare pointed out: “the wine may be defined as: stories and tannins. The new generation is in pursuit of a story along with a well-structured wine. I think wine is much more than just the liquid inside the bottle.”
Moon Song Bang was also agreed on this point. In relation to her market, she added: “red wines are still dominating the market”. Besides, she stressed the growth experienced by sparkling wines as a worldwide trend, partly shared by the new generation.
Concerning the Indian market, Harshal Shah said that wines highly appreciated by the new generation are fruity and easy to drink. “India is not a culture where wine is paired with food, but it is drunk before and after the dinner,” explained Shah.
José Luis Ruiz Santos, as an example of growth, mentioned his company: “El grillo y la luna”. The specialist highlighted the importance of a marketing not based on awards, recognitions, and traditional reviews. They have grown through personalized wine tastings that, although they are more tedious, give the company a more substantial base.
Journalist: M. Soledad Gonzalez, M. José Merino and Laura Saieg
Source: WineSur
Argentina focusing on ‘more subtle styles’
25th January, 2013 by Rupert Millar
New attitudes to winemaking in Argentina are spurring a trend towards subtler wine styles and the examination of terroir, thinks Buckingham Schenk’s managing director Jon Pepper.
ArgentinaSpeaking to the drinks business last week, Pepper said that the shift in Argentina was part of a wider New World winemaking evolution and changing consumer perceptions of what New World wines were capable of offering.
“It’s evolved quite dramatically in the past 10 years,” he said. “There are a lot of top properties in the New World that have been producing terroir wines for a long time, however, the longer a winery produces wine for, the better knowledge they gain of their soil etc.
“It feels like there’s a general shift back to more subtle styles.”
His view is in line with others in the Argentine and UK trades, with consultant Edgardo del Pópolo recently telling db that the days of “big” wine in Argentina were “over”.
On the subject of icon wines and whether their profiles would evolve from some of the more “monolithic” examples as a result of this he suggested: “It’s not about the icon wines so much anymore, rather it’s an absolute focus on quality.
“They’re saying, ‘these are our best vineyards’ and they’re letting the quality of the grapes speak for themselves rather than making something that’s massively over-extracted.
“They’ve always been quality driven but the idea behind that quality has changed.”
He stressed that it was just an “emerging trend” from Argentina but added that there was much that could be achieved with more experimentation, particularly with altitude.
He explained: “Viñalba has planted across the Uco Valley at different altitudes and in different soils from different topography. They then vinify separately and blend the wines together for far greater complexity.”
More on the development of Argentine wine will appear in the February issue of db.
Source: The Drinks Business
Wine Consumers
Break point for Argentina
AUGUST 24, 2012 BY MARIANO ZALAZAR | IN LATEST NEWS, NEWS
A turn in the world consumption trends, focused on the highest price ranges, gives oxygen to the bottled wine. Argentina makes moves in this direction and, even with elevated production costs, manages to remain in the game.
The strong growth of Argentina’s wine exports reported in the past ten years was propelled by bottled wines, mainly by Malbec. However, recent statistics reveal that total wine sales abroad have increased by 41% compared with last year, due to bulk wine exports that grew by 222%. The bottled wine suffered a 3% fall.
The phenomenon of the wine in bulk is a response to Argentina’s great use of the worldwide price rise of this product. In January 2008, the price of a 9-liter case reached USD 8.3, almost twice the value of 2004 (USD 4.8).
As regards the drop registered in bottled wines, the main cause is the loss of competitiveness originated by the high internal inflation. Likewise, the real exchange rate favoring Argentine wineries has declined by 50% in only five years (since 2006).
Nonetheless, what is the way to cope with this complex situation? This time, global consumption trends are favorable for Argentina.
Javier Merino, director of Área del Vino, highlighted that a gradual change is taking place in the global pyramid of still wine consumption. Currently, 1,949 million 9-liter cases are consumed within the price segment of under USD 27 per case, 489 million in the USD 27 – 40 range and 286 million cases of wines over USD 40. This data derives from the last Meeting of Situation Analysis conducted by the Argentine Society of Wine (SAV) in Mendoza, according to Área del Vino’s statistics based on Euromonitor.
This is the reason why trends are positive for Argentine wineries, which have lost competitiveness in the low price ranges. Based on statistics, 72% of the 1,949 million cases of wine bought in the lowest segment are made by the country that consumes them. Meanwhile, imports of wines in bulk account for 22% and for 6% in the case of bottled wines. In this case, the opportunities for Argentina lie in the regions of high productivity (in bulk) and in nearby markets (bottled).
In respect of the medium price range, figures are even more encouraging for Argentina’s export wineries. Consumption experiences a 1.4% annual increase and the ratio of imported bottled wines keeps growing (61%), whereas the 39% correspond to the local production.
Finally, the highest price ranges enjoy the ideal situation. Consumption goes up by 3.8% yearly and 68% are imported bottled wines. The remaining 32% are from local production.
In conclusion, the global consumption growth of the most expensive wines is good news for Argentine wineries, as it is difficult for them to keep the profitable margins. With higher prices, the pressure on costs falls and there are more possibilities of making profits, provided that wines are sold on time and correctly, of course.
Source: Winesur
Exports
Bulk is still the driving force of wine exports
November 30, 2012 by María Eugenia Aznar | in Exports, News
During January-October period, the overall wine exports grew by 9.8% compared with the same period of last year. Of this upturn, 83% was propelled by bulk sales that account for 15.4% of the total exported wine.
Argentina’s Exports remain showing numbers not very encouraging with regard to bottled wine. However, comparing January – October 2012 with the same period of 2011, a slight increase of 1.5% has been registered in terms of turnover, whereas the volume suffered a drop of almost 6%, according to Caucasia Wine Thinking’s data. In this sense, wine in bottle pushed turnover up, compensating for the fall in the exports of wine in other kind of container.
During this period, bottled wine exports garnered around USD 612 million and almost 17 million cases, with an average price of USD 36.4 per case. United States is still the main destination, with a share of 36.1%. This market continues with the same upward trend in turnover, and downward in volume, due to the rise in prices.
For its part, Canada remains doing well in terms of both turnover and volume, amounting to USD 72 million and 2 million cases during the measured period, with an average price of USD 39.5 per case.
On the contrary, Brazil has dropped 16% by turnover and 20% by volume, with an average price per case of USD 34.2, below the general average.
Sparkling wines continue enjoying a good year, climbing to almost USD 20 million and 3.6 million liters, having an average price per liter of USD 5.45. Brazil remains being the leading destination, though it has a bad performance over the past months; whereas Venezuela and Chile registered a great boost in both value and volume.
Finally, wines in bulk continue on the up, garnering USD 57 million and 68 million liters, with an average price of USD 0.86 a liter. It is noteworthy that, in the analyzed period, bulk wines account for 15.4% of the total wine exports.
Source: Winesur
Exports
Bulk is still the driving force of wine exports
November 30, 2012 by María Eugenia Aznar | in Exports, News
During January-October period, the overall wine exports grew by 9.8% compared with the same period of last year. Of this upturn, 83% was propelled by bulk sales that account for 15.4% of the total exported wine.
Argentina’s Exports remain showing numbers not very encouraging with regard to bottled wine. However, comparing January – October 2012 with the same period of 2011, a slight increase of 1.5% has been registered in terms of turnover, whereas the volume suffered a drop of almost 6%, according to Caucasia Wine Thinking’s data. In this sense, wine in bottle pushed turnover up, compensating for the fall in the exports of wine in other kind of container.
During this period, bottled wine exports garnered around USD 612 million and almost 17 million cases, with an average price of USD 36.4 per case. United States is still the main destination, with a share of 36.1%. This market continues with the same upward trend in turnover, and downward in volume, due to the rise in prices.
For its part, Canada remains doing well in terms of both turnover and volume, amounting to USD 72 million and 2 million cases during the measured period, with an average price of USD 39.5 per case.
On the contrary, Brazil has dropped 16% by turnover and 20% by volume, with an average price per case of USD 34.2, below the general average.
Sparkling wines continue enjoying a good year, climbing to almost USD 20 million and 3.6 million liters, having an average price per liter of USD 5.45. Brazil remains being the leading destination, though it has a bad performance over the past months; whereas Venezuela and Chile registered a great boost in both value and volume.
Finally, wines in bulk continue on the up, garnering USD 57 million and 68 million liters, with an average price of USD 0.86 a liter. It is noteworthy that, in the analyzed period, bulk wines account for 15.4% of the total wine exports.
Source: Winesur
Monday, December 3, 2012
Is cheap Argentinian Malbec about to disappear?
I have a story on Wine-Searcher about how the flow of cheap, quality Argentine Malbec to the US might be about to stop because of government interference, high inflation and a small harvest.
It would be a short-sighted shame if the Argentine government succeeds in derailing what may be the country's best-known export.
It's still a country dominated by agriculture. Wine was only the 21st largest export from Argentina in 2010 by value, but more than half of the larger dollar value exported products were agricultural. Wine is the apex of agriculture, and perhaps gives a halo effect to all of a country's farm goods. Not only that, wine has easily the most potential added value of any agricultural product.
Yet short-sighted government regulations are an Argentine tradition.
Argentina was one of the world's 10 richest nations 100 years ago, according to Ian Mount's fine book "The Vineyard at the End of the World" (a good Christmas gift). But after the country was hit by the global depression of the 1930s, a military junta made things worse with laws such as a fine for farmers planting new fields or vineyards. Shantytowns outside Buenos Aires with refugees from the countryside popped up immediately.
The country closed its wine market and populist leader Juan Perón wanted to keep the masses happy with wine, so he ordered wineries to increase the supply, which most did by adding tap water. Until wine's recent fashionability in the US, Argentina, with plenty of Italian immigrants, had the only real wine-drinking culture in the Americas. Low prices led to higher and higher consumption and production. By the time consultants Paul Hobbs and Michel Rolland got there in the 1980s, Argentina was making an awful lot of wine -- it was the world's 5th largest producer -- and it might have been the worst wine in the world.
"At the time, all the wines in Argentina were oxidized," Hobbs said. "They believed that was the norm. They were big drinkers of Bordeaux but the storage in Argentina was bad. That's how they thought the wine should be."
Hobbs only visited Argentina because he was pestered by former classmate Jorge Catena while he was visiting Chile. Unlike most previous winemakers, who had flown in to Mendoza and been underwhelmed by a drab, Soviet-esque city, Hobbs drove over the Andes from Chile and saw the obvious potential in the land. He went to work with Nicolás Catena in the 1990s on creating the first Argentine wines to turn the heads of the world.
"Out of the first four years, we had only one good vintage," Hobbs says. "We were about to shut down the project. Then we got the devaluation."
The collapse of the peso in 2001 was devastating for the country's residents, but suddenly labor and supplies were cheap. Catena and others had modernized their wineries, and Malbec had been re-appreciated. High quality $10 Argentine Malbec soon took the US and UK by storm.
For the last 10 years, world respect for Argentine wines has skyrocketed. It's hard to imagine that in the 1980s many believed no quality wines could be made there. Of course, at the same time many believed nobody could successfully make Pinot Noir in California. And you thought '80s fashions were silly.
I find it hard to imagine that this current difficulty, as bleak as it seems now, is going to set Argentina back for more than a few years. I had the opportunity to visit Mendoza last year and was impressed not just by the consistent quality of the wines -- Bonarda and Torrontes are underrated, you should look for them -- but also by the food culture, which is vital. Neighboring Chile has better terroir in just about every respect except elevation, but it's not a wine-drinking country and it's not a country that exalts food. Argentines can and will argue passionately about how to marinate beef or fill empanadas; this is a country where people understand that minute changes in flavor make a huge difference.
Maybe a shortfall in $10 Malbecs will be good for Argentina in the long run. Perhaps the foreign exchange-regulation problem will prevent a Yellow Tail from springing up and ruining Argentina's image. Until recently, that was the greatest fear for Argentine wineries. Not anymore.
Source: The Gray Report
About the wines of Chile, Argentina
By DAN BERGER
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 11:11 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 11:11 a.m.
To hear some U.S. wine consumers talk about it, South American wine comes from one place: Chilergentina.
Yet there couldn't be two more divergent and yet adjacent wine countries than Chile and Argentina, both of which have had great success selling wines to the United States and Great Britain.
The two nations at the southern end of the wine world share Spanish as their common language. And there the similarity ends.
Chile, one of Latin America's most stable economies, has an inflation rate of 4 percent and a strong middle class, and makes a wide range of wines from warmer and cooler regions.
Argentina, with higher inflation and an unstable economyand whose residents refuse to accept the government-stated inflation rate of 10 percentand tell you it's closer to 30 percent, makes only a limited number of wines and has much internal strife based around an unstable economy.
A three-week trip to see a few of the wine areas of both countries was eye-opening in terms of quality. Both countries are making great strides to upgrade the quality of their wines, with Chile a bit ahead because of its maritime climates and the head start it got.
Both countries have long had wine-grape vineyards and both made a lot of wine, but before about 1980, little of it was exported. It wasn't until the early 1980s that Chile began to ship wine to the United States, most of it selling for $5 to $7 a bottle.
Today, Chile ships 70 percent of its wine to the export market. Argentina didn't get its vinous act together for another 15 years or so, and when it began to import wines to the United States, the Bordeaux blending grape Malbec was the wine that caught on fastest.
Interestingly, on our trip here we found cabernet sauvignon also does very well in Argentina's warmer climates, and a few larger houses are sending more cabernet to the United States than in the past, to a welcome reception.
The only drawback seems to be that most of the wines come from Mendoza, a vast, warm region near the Andes in the central part of the country, and many of the red wines are quite similar to one another.
Chile, by contrast, has more than a dozen different growing regions, ranging from Elqui and Limari in the north to Bio Bio and Malleco in the south, so it can make a wider range of styles of wine. In recent years, aggressive planting in the cooler Casablanca Valley, north of Santiago, has allowed Chile to make some stellar sauvignon blancs and syrahs.
Both countries are starting to market their wines a bit differently from the recent past.
Argentina's most energetic white wine of late, stealing attention from some good chardonnays, is Torrontes, related to Muscat. The best of them come from the region called Salta, north of the city of Mendoza. Most of the wines are spicy and slightly sweet, and work nicely with spiced Asian foods.
The country also has rediscovered a local red wine grape called Bonarda, also called Charbono in California, which has slightly better acidity and adds much to Malbec blends. On its own, it can be tasty when paired with pasta dishes.
Chile also has an alternative red. Carmenere, once thought to be merlot, now makes a number of excellent red wines and adds much to cabernet blends.
Wines of both countries are steadily improving, to where a number are now being offered for $50 to $90 a bottle. A decade ago, such pricing would have seemed absurd, but with new wine-making technologies and a class of millennial-generation buyers eager to try new wines, Chile and Argentina are clearly defining themselves as wine countries with separate identities.
Source: Press Democrat
Argentina's fair trade wineries help workers weather shaky times
Emily Schmall | 09/05/12
MEDRANO, Argentina — Rosa Ponce, a tall woman in a button-down jean shirt and long pants, her blonde hair piled under a bandana, squints into the sun as she examines a grape vine.
Under a blue sky with the snow-covered Andes in the distance, she deftly prunes dry shoots and unwanted buds off the vines to make room for new clusters of the inky-red grapes that have become synonymous with this part of the world, the French-imported Malbec.
Pruning the plants, this crucial first step, will determine the success of the harvest eight months later, as well as Ponce’s own fortunes here in the picture-perfect landscape of Argentina’s wine country. As a contratista (contract worker) for Viñasol, a non-profit association of small wine companies here in the province of Mendoza, the 36-year-old stands to reap a portion of next year’s earnings.
“With the contratista system, she is the owner of production,” says Eduardo Bertona, Bodega Furlotti president, during a stroll through the vineyard, one of thousands across 4,800 miles of irrigated desert running from Argentina’s northern coast to the southern region of Patagonia that are preparing for the start of a new growing season.
In an age of corporate-scale agriculture, Viñasol is rewarded for its egalitarian labor system with a fair trade logo that allows it to charge a premium for its wine and grapes, sold with fair trade labels at Sam’s Club and Prestige supermarkets in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK.
But Furlotti managers say the system that presents some opportunity for upward mobility is at risk, with the numbers of contratistas dwindling from 12,000 to 4,000 over the last decade.
Meanwhile the country’s wine industry, which took advantage of a highly depreciated Argentine peso after Argentina’s 2002 economic collapse to grow Malbec grapes lucratively — attracting foreign investment and massive vineyards — has taken a slide since President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner instituted new policies to restrict trade after her re-election last October, according to a recent report by the USDA.
Now the buffer created to protect Argentina’s economy from the financial woes of the some of the world’s richest countries is hindering an industry whose lifeblood is foreign consumers.
The sudden retraction is a shock to the system in Mendoza, which in the past 10 years built a grow-for-export industry that by 2011 was supplying 45 percent of the world’s Malbec wine and had become the world’s fifth-largest wine region.
The contratista system, says agricultural engineer María Laura Burdotti, has helped so-called “smallholders” weather the tumult of the industry.
“Forming the association was a way to defend the small producers from the incursion of huge growers and the homebuilding industry,” Burdotti says during a tour of Furlotti’s modern winery in Lujan de Cujo, a rural suburb of the provincial capital.
Never mind that the system was devised by immigrants from Tuscany and Spain in the 19th century when labor laws did not exist as a way to gain a foothold in a new country.
“The prospect was better for fair trade wines,” the winery president Bertona shrugs.
For nine months in the vineyards, Ponce is entitled to 17 percent of the total grape sales at harvest. She also holds a seat on Viñasol’s 25-member assembly of vineyard owners and contratistas, who meet twice a year to discuss how to carve up la prima, 80 percent of the profit off the fixed rate for fair trade — 0.05 euros above the standard 0.25 euros per kilo of grapes.
In recent years, the assembly has used the money to pay for computer education for the children of contratistas. The assembly also granted some money for Oscar Rojas, a Bolivian contract farmer who is building a house for wife and five small children brick by brick in a tract of brownfield across from the vineyard.
“The life is rather similar,” reflects Rojas, who has worked at both large-scale commercial farms and as a contratista since immigrating to Argentina from Bolivia as a child. “Pay might be better here,” Rojas says with a grin, “but there is also more risk.”
According to fair trade advocates, the rates guaranteed for fair trade wine and grapes have helped shield smallholders like Furlotti — and the contratistas — from the whims of markets and of governments.
Ponce had a way to feed herself and three children after her husband, Antonio, died from undiagnosed heart disease at 53.
“The work helps me,” Ponce says, using a forearm to wipe bits of the sandy soil from her eyes. “There was nothing left for me but to continue working,” she says, wrenching away shriveled shoots as she talks about her late husband, a contratista who had worked the same vineyards for 30 years, a job he assumed after his father retired.
“This is all I know,” Ponce, nicknamed la gringa (the white lady) for her light complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes, says with a laugh.
She and her children Carlito, 13, Diana, 15, and Santiago, 17, live in a brick and tin house with an outdoor stove on company-owned property adjacent to the vineyard. Three rooms are sparsely decorated with photos in gold frames, pleather furniture and the odd home appliance, purchased with the proceeds from a better-than-average harvest.
The daughter of a contratista, Ponce was one of eight children, and left school at age 11 to work in the vineyards with her parents. Ponce’s children are permitted by the arbiters of fair trade to pitch in during the harvest and after school or on weekends, but Ponce wants that tradition to end with her.
“My hope for my children is that they finish school,” she says later in the sparsely furnished living room of the modest structure where her late husband grew up.
Across Mendoza, wineries are named for people like Ponce, in homage to a labor system that gave immigrants an opportunity to advance from poor farmworkers to wealthy landowners. Indeed, Bodega Furlotti founder Angel Furlotti worked as a contratista for decades after immigrating from Parma, Italy in 1899 before saving enough to go into business for himself.
Ponce will hope that her fortunes, like generations of Argentine contratistas before her, will slowly build along with the popularity of the fair trade logo.
Source: MinnPost
Be on the lookout for the great new packaging from Lagarde for their Altas Cumbres line - beautiful!
Source: Dangeorus Wine Group
SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 | IN LATEST NEWS, NEWS
In his article, the well-known Master of wine, Tim Atkins, highlights that the country should capture the true diversity of its leading grape and focus on other varieties in order to avoid commoditization
Is Argentina too dependent on Malbec? The question might seem absurd – few countries have managed to associate themselves so successfully with a single grape – but it’s beginning to worry some producers. The partial commoditisation of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, a wine style that is even more dominant in New Zealand than Mendoza Malbec is in Argentina, has set a precedent that it be would be unwise to ignore. When your flagship grape dips in popularity or, because of oversupply, price, it can take the rest of the industry with it.
The situation is more acute in the United States, Argentina’s most important export market, than it is here. In the States, 60% of imports are Malbecs, but the figure is pretty high in Canada (42%), Brazil (40%) and the UK (38%) too. Nicolas Catena of Catena Zapata, an acute observer of the international wine scene, thinks that the problem is potentially huge.
“The USA is a fashion market,” he says. “Some consumers just want to buy what’s new and exciting, and for a while that was Argentinian Malbec. Consumers like its smoothness and sweetness. But the growth in the market has stopped, partly because we can’t produce any more Malbec. With our other wines, we are not doing well anywhere.”
Catena is being a little too pessimistic here – Torrontés accounts for 7% of exports to the UK, according to Wines of Argentina – but you can understand his point. If Argentina hangs its reputation solely on Malbec the viticultural diversity for which it is famous will suffer. The country’s unique heritage has given it a rich assemblage of varieties from Spain, Italy and France. Focusing on only one grape, however good and distinctive, blurs it.
So what else does Argentina make? A glance at the vineyard register of the country’s Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura is instructive. After Malbec (by far the most planted variety), the next nine red grapes are Bonarda, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Bequignol (a new one on me, too) and Barbera.
The leading white grape, Pedro Gimenez (sic), is considerably less exciting than Malbec, but the list improves after that: Torrontés Riojano, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Torrontés Sanjuanino, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Torrontés Mendocino, Riesling and Viognier. Added together, the three Torrontés clones are just behind Pedro Gimenez in terms of planting.
Argentina, it must be said, is not as well suited to white wines as neighbouring Chile. This is reflected in the planting statistics: white grapes make up 23% of the total. But the quality of its white wines is getting better with every vintage. They are unrecognizable today compared with what I tasted on my first trip to Argentina in 1993, partly because of better viticulture and plantings in cooler areas at high altitude (most notably the Uco Valley), but also because of better winemaking and a realisation that white wines are not doomed to be inferior.
On my most recent trip to Argentina, I tasted more than 500 wines, roughly 100 of which were white. My conclusions were twofold: Torrontés, in all its guises, is Argentina’s signature white grape, and Chardonnay makes most of its best white wines. Top Torrontés producers include Colomé, Etchart, Michel Torino, El Tránsito, Susana Balbo (Crios) and Alta Vista, while Catena leads the field with its Chardonnays, ahead of Doña Paula, Terrazas, Lindaflor and Luigi Bosca.
The only other varietals to look out for are Sauvignon Blanc (Zorzal, Doña Paula and Finca Sophenia), Semillon (Mendel), Pinot Gris (F Lurton) and Riesling (H Canale). Also worth tasting is Gala 3, Luigi Bosca’s complex, innovative blend of Viognier, Chardonnay and Riesling.
And what about red alternatives to Malbec? The most obvious answer is Bonarda, which has around 18,000 ha of Argentina’s total of 228,00 ha, compared with 31,000 ha of Malbec, but “it’s not homogenous”, according to Edy Del Popolo of Doña Paula. “It’s still a big challenge for us.” That may be true, but some producers, most notably Zuccardi and Passionate Wines are rising to it. I’m also a big fan of the 2011 Argento BSM, a blend of Bonarda, Syrah and Malbec.
The other single red grapes with potential in Argentina are Pinot Noir (albeit only in Patagonia and parts of the Uco Valley), Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Tempranillo, Tannat, Syrah and especially Cabernet Sauvignon. Leading producers include Chacra, Schroeder and H Canale (Pinot Noir), Andeluna, Pulenta Estate and Catena Zapata(Cabernet Franc), El Porvenir de los Andes (Petit Verdot), O Fournier and Zuccardi (Tempranillo), Colomé, Michel Torino, San Pedro de Yacochuya and Davalos (Tannat), Graffigna, Finca Eugenio Bustos and Finca Las Moras (Syrah) and Riglos, Catena Zapata, Andeluna, Trapiche, Piatelli, Doña Paula and Cobos (Cabernet Sauvignon).
For all that, I believe that most of Argentina’s greatest red wines are blends, especially of Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. The most thrilling Argentinian wine I’ve ever tasted – the 2001 Nicolas Catena Zapata – is such a combination, with 88% Cabernet and 12% Malbec. There is something about these two varieties, both south-west French in origin, which seems to work beautifully together in the warmer climate of Argentina.
Further top blends, which sometimes include other grapes in the mix, are Achaval Ferrer’s Quimera, Pulenta Estate’s Gran Corte, Trapezio’s Bobó, Gran Enemigo, Cobos, Riglos Gran Corte, Colomé Estate, Michel Torino Altimus, O Fournier B Crux, El Tránsito Pietro Marini Reserva Roble, Trapiche Iscay, Cheval des Andes, Caro, Masi Corbec, Fabre Montmayou Grand Vin, Bressia Profundo and Noemía J Alberto. These are all very complex wines.
And yet, to most consumers, Malbec remains what Argentina does best: its aromatic, textured, full-flavoured USP. The problem is that they tend to assume Malbec comes in only one (very big) style. The challenge for Argentinian winemakers is to capture the true diversity of their country’s leading grape, expressing different regional and sub-regional nuances. It’s not an easy trick to pull off, but Argentina needs to make the most of Malbec, while gently guiding consumers towards other wines.
Source: Winesur
91 points
Wine Enthusiast
Editor's Choice
Price $24
Opens with lovely blackberry and herb aromas that suggest richness and ripeness but not overt weight. It feels lush and deep, and tastes totally pleasant and easy, with black fruit, toast and pepper flavors. A thorough and balanced blend of Malbec, Cabernet and Syrah. — M.S. (3/1/2012)
Source: Wine Enthusiast
From Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar:
2010 Arauco Carmenere Reserva Central Valley 87 Points
($13) Opaque purple. Youthful black and blue fruit aromas are complicated by notes of black pepper and woodsmoke. Light-bodied, taut blackberry and mulberry flavors deliver good energy but could use more depth. The clean finish shows good cut.
Source: Stephen Tanzers International Wine Cellar
From Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar:
2011 Arauco Sauvignon Blanc Reserva Central Valley 87 points
($13) Light yellow. Aromas of lemon zest, herbs and pine, with a touch of white flowers in the background. Round and fleshy for a Chilean sauvignon blanc, offering warm, slightly loose-knit pear and candied citrus flavors. This very fruity wine finishes with good cling and a touch of heat.
Source: Stephen Tanzers International Wine Cellar
Arauco, a brand just recently launched in the United States is begnining to receive widespread critical acclaim. From Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar two "Very Good to Excellent" ratings for the Arauco Reserva Sauvignon Blanc and Reserva Carmenere. Download the shelf-talkers now!
May 12
Arauco
By Josh Raynolds
2011 Arauco Sauvignon Blanc Reserva Central Valley 87 Points
($13) Light yellow. Aromas of lemon zest, herbs and pine, with a touch of white flowers in the background. Round and fleshy for a Chilean sauvignon blanc, offering warm, slightly loose-knit pear and candied citrus flavors. This very fruity wine finishes with good cling and a touch of heat.
2010 Arauco Carmenere Reserva Central Valley 87 Points
($13) Opaque purple. Youthful black and blue fruit aromas are complicated by notes of black pepper and woodsmoke. Light-bodied, taut blackberry and mulberry flavors deliver good energy but could use more depth. The clean finish shows good cut.
Source: Stephen Tanzers International Wine Cellar
It was easy to be seduced by Mendoza, Argentina's wine capital
By Natalie Gallagher
ngallagher@pioneerpress.com
Posted: 04/22/2012 12:01:00 AM CDT
There is a violent sunset, bruising the sky purple and slashing it with bright orange and red, the color of crushed poppies. It is almost startling, the contrast of the sky against the stillness of the grapevines.
The bodegas are orderly, spread out over the landscape, flush against the mountains, and the bus carrying me from Santiago, Chile, to Mendoza, Argentina rolls past them.
I had been waiting for this part of the trip since I started traveling through South America in January. I'm an enthusiastic wine lover, and I have always succumbed willingly to the romance of a vineyard and the profession of winemaking. To finally be in Mendoza, Argentina's famed wine capital - producing more than 70 percent of the country's wine - already felt so sweet.
Mendoza is the capital city in the Mendoza province nestled just outside the Andes Mountains. The province is the largest wine-producing region in South America. The most widely produced varietal is the Malbec, but the story doesn't end there. Besides the vast abundance of libations, Mendoza is a dreamscape for the adventure traveler.
It is near Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas, and the most important skiing resort in Argentina, and it boasts a dazzling array of activities from skydiving to rafting to horseback riding through vineyard country at sunset. Or you can spend your days lazing about, biking from bodega to bodega, lounging in hammocks and enjoying the grapes of the region, falling in
and out of love with everyone and everything around you - especially with good wine.
Hundreds of rows of vines are spread out before me, dark-purple grapes hanging heavily from the nets. I can feel the dry heat of the sun on my face, the pebble grains of dirt filling in the edges of my sandals. It is the first of my numerous vineyard tours, and I am fascinated and thrilled to be doing this.
MORE THAN MALBEC
My first visit is with the small family-run bodega Monte Quieto, where the
Tastings at Lagarde focus on three tiers of the family grapes. ( Natalie Gallagher)
owners, Augustin and Mathilde Casabal, give me a warm welcome.
"We like to say we met through a bottle of wine," says Mathilde, smiling at her husband across the immense wood table at their outdoor dining room. "We were at a party, and I saw him across the room, this handsome guy. He had a bottle of wine, which was lucky. I made my way over with an empty glass, and here we are."
Augustin and Mathilde are not typical bodega owners. They were not born into viticulture, and neither has had a formal education in winemaking. The great majority of vineyards in Mendoza have been around for decades and are large-production offerings bearing the family name.
The Casabals have been in business only since 2001, when they purchased the estate
Storage at the Lagarde vineyard features wine barrels piled high and arching doors. ( Natalie Gallagher)
in Agrelo, Lujan de Cuyo, near Mendoza. Their first wine was produced in 2005, a blend, not a Malbec.
"We are not just focused on Malbec," says Vincent over a lunch of homemade beef empanadas and fruit. "We do have a 100 percent Malbec grape, but it's not the heart of our range; it's not what we like to do. We do blends. We've got a little of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, two grapes from Bordeaux, and from those we blend. We want to say, 'Look, Argentina and Mendoza are able to make other wines than just Malbec, wines with complexity and depth and a lot of things that the pure Malbec doesn't have. And that's the philosophy of Monte Quieto."
"The popularity of Malbecs is a good thing for Argentina, but it's also a risk," explains Vincent, our guide. "What we are doing here in Monte Quieto is for taste, obviously, but also because we believe it's the future of Argentinean wines. It's a very interesting time to be here now, because the wine culture is changing and evolving very quickly. That happened in Europe 115 years ago. Here, you have the liberty and the space. The opportunities are here."
Opportunities, indeed. As I look out at the world Mathilde and Augustin have created - the sprawling ranch-style house set at the end of a dirt road, surrounded by acres of vines they have lovingly planted and tended, the shouts of two of the four Casabal children from within the home, the vinification facilities mere steps away, the cloudy mountains in the distance - I feel
Olive trees line the narrow paths between grapevines at Lagarde vineyard in Mendoza. ( Natalie Gallagher)
I am just starting to understand this dry, desert region and the boundless future smiling in the creases of soil.
PICTURE-PERFECT BODEGA
The principal vineyard of Lagarde stands in sharp contrast to the small production and quaintness of Monte Quieto. Just a stone's throw away, right in the middle of the city of Lujan de Cuyo, the immense holdings of Lagarde spread out.
With romantic patios and a sunny, cool courtyard, rustic stone-washed architecture and rows of vines more than 100 years old, Lagarde is the place everyone pictures when they hear the phrase "Argentinean bodega."
Founded in 1897, the 325 hectares (approximately 803 acres) at Lagarde hold Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Semillon grapes, and five more vineyards throughout Mendoza round out the Lagarde holdings with additional varietals.
Lagarde is one of the oldest vineyards in the country, with a broad selection of wines and extensive holdings - but this is still Argentina, and I have not forgotten my conversation about the newness of wine culture with my friends at Monte Quieto. It will be interesting, I think, to compare the attitudes of the two.
I arrive at Lagarde on a perfectly sunny afternoon, the vineyard pleasantly buzzing with the excitement of harvest season. There is no mistaking the musky smell of ripe grapes that hangs in the air.
I am greeted by Sebastian Barbazo, the regional manager for Lagarde, and he ushers me on a leisurely walk through the grounds and buildings.
We amble through the winery, surrounded by stainless-steel tanks, wood casks and French oak barrels. Sebastian leads me over to an ornately stunning wood cask, which he explains was discovered by new vineyard owners in the 1970s. The cask, Sebastian tells me, contains a 1942 Semillon.
"The oldest white wine in South America," he says, with a grin. "Half a century of Lagarde in one bottle. It's good."
Then I'm led through a storage room, lined floor to high ceiling with oak barrels, and through wide arched wood doors, which open to the vineyard. As we walk the delicate dirt paths, Sebastian points out the thin lines of water running on either side - a natural irrigation system - and explains that the rows of vines are so narrow they are still horse-tilled.
The ambience is romantic, peaceful. And I am struck by how, only a few yards behind me, beyond the heavy black Lagarde gate I entered, the world is busy and loud.
"Look at this," says Sebastian, smiling softly. He opens his arms to the dirt path leading between the delicate branches of olive trees, framed by symmetrical rows of vines. "This is perfect."
Then there are the tastings. When I ask Sebastian where he thinks the strengths are, I expect to hear Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon - after all, those grapes were part of the original plot a century ago. Instead, Sebastian points me toward the Viognier.
"No oak, fruit forward, very aromatic," ticks off Sebastian, swirling his glass with pleasure. I smell roses and peaches and taste bright apricot and melon. "This grape comes from France, and we - Lagarde - were the first winery in Argentina to plant it."
We transition to a generous lunch of gnocchi with cherry tomatoes and grilled pork, and I elect to take the bottle of Viognier with us. Sebastian contributes to the discussion I began at Monte Quieto, on the prevalence of Malbec in Mendoza and what it means for Argentina's burgeoning wine culture.
"All I've been hearing since I got here is that there's more to Mendoza than Malbec," I say to Sebastian with a laugh. "What do you think? Besides the Malbec, what's the most important thing about Mendoza? What do you want people to remember?"
The corners of Sebastian's mouth turned upward in a knowing grin. "Well, you are reaching for a glass of Viogner at this moment, and you are in Mendoza," he tells me without hesitation. "I think that is the answer to that question."
Natalie Gallagher is a freelance journalist with a passion for travel, food, wine and adventure. You can keep up with her travels at twincities.com/travel or on her blog at nataliaabroad.tumblr.com. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to email her at nataliaabroad@gmail.com.
Source: Twin Cities Pioneer Press
Argentina shows white potential
23rd February, 2012 by Rupert Millar
Speaking to the drinks business he said: “Argentina has turned a corner with white wines. Three or four years ago I wouldn’t have thought about importing Argentine Sauvignon because I didn’t think the wines were able to compete with the likes of Chile and New Zealand.
“But there’s been a big uplift in quality and we’re seeing both personality and regionality in the wines.”
Out of 30 wines that Webster has added to his range for this year, 11 are white and include Sauvignon Blanc, Fiano, Chardonnay, Torrontés and Viognier.
Webster said he wasn’t “flying the flag for other varieties” coming out of Argentina but rather, “I think what we have here is representative of what’s going on in the country. It’s a statement of what’s happening.”
On the subject of Argentina’s pricing, Webster stated that it was more important that Argentina kept its value up and he said he would “sacrifice volume for style and quality” quite happily.
“I’ve given up trying to source cheap wines from Argentina because either they don’t exist or they’re terrible,” he continued.
“My model is New Zealand. With the exception of a little wobble a couple of years ago they’ve managed their ‘brand’ admirably.
Argentina has the second highest price per bottle in the UK (after New Zealand) and it’s the reason Argentina is not really on supermarket shelves let’s be honest. And I don’t think it ever will be.”
For more on Argentina’s white wines, see the February issue of db.
Source: The Drinks Business
Torrontes Proves Argentina More Than Just a One-Trick Pony
February 15, 2012 by Lorie Perrone
Filed under FCG, Wine Conversation
When you think of Argentina what comes to mind? Tango? Gauchos and pampas? Cattle ranching? Malbec? Argentina is a country with a rising, no, shooting star. A country of unique features and contrasts it has the eighth largest land mass in the world (over 1 million square miles), some of the highest mountains (Aconcagua, 22,834’), it is three times as long (north to south) as its widest point (870 mi), glaciers, deserts, mountains, and plains. Argentina is a thoroughly modern country with European influences, a relatively high level of per capita income, and one of the highest literacy rates in the world, at 97%. The total population is 38 million, a whopping 35% of who live in the capital city of Buenos Aires. Argentina has a number of fascinating facts relative to its wine culture, such as growing grapes at the highest elevations in the world (as high as 9,800’ in Colomé), and at the lowest latitude, 43° in the Patagonia province.
Argentina’s wine culture was well established long before many other new world wine regions. Sixteenth century Spanish missionaries and conquistadores brought their favorite vines over with them as they explored and settled in South America. Malbec is the red grape most associated with Argentina. It found more favorable growing conditions in Argentina than its native Rhone region of southwest France. Known for its firm tannins, purple hues, plum flavors and licorice and spice notes Malbec is the perfect complement to the diet of red meats so prevalent in Argentina. Malbec in Argentina is also able to grow in its unadulterated, un-grafted state. Imported long before the phylloxera epidemic that devastated Europe’s grapevines, causing most of Europe to remedy the situation by grafting American rootstock onto native vines. Ever vigilant, on the lookout for any first indications of the dreaded phylloxera louse, many Argentine winegrowers plant rose shrubs at the ends of rows to be a warning beacon. The arid, desert/mesa climate with low humidity and annual rainfall amounts, combined with the prevailing winds naturally protect Argentina’s vines from the overuse of sulphur, pesticides, and various other treatments found to be necessary to ensure a good crop elsewhere in the world.
Up until the 1970’s Malbec was referred to locally as “the French” grape. Quality was not the key factor in production and consequently it was over-planted. Argentina is the fifth largest wine producing country in the world, with over 540,000 acres under vineyard cultivation. Untils the 1990’s not much of that product found its way out of the country. Winemakers had not paid much heed to the export markets and the wine remained relatively unknown to the rest of the world. All of that changed back in the 1990’s when the country’s own internal financial struggles forced Argentina’s winegrowers to experience a fundamental shift from quantity output to quality wine production. Vines were ripped out, yields were controlled, and attention was paid to which clones were oenologically superior. Argentina is now more export-oriented and one of hottest value wine regions in the world. Their wines enjoy an excellent quality to price ratio and are extremely food-friendly.
Malbec is not the only wine of quality grown in Argentina, though it does seem to currently enjoy a singularity of association. This country is no one trick pony in the wine world. Torrontes is the native white grape of Argentina. It is a natural combination of the Muscat de Alejandro, and the Mission grape, known locally as the Criolla Chica, brought over from Spain by 16th century conquistadores and missionaries. There are three variations on the Torrontés grape: Torrontés Riojano, the most common, Torrontés Sanjuanino, and Torrontés Mendocino. There is almost no other wine-growing region in the world cultivating this grape, though recently some can be found in Spain and New Zealand. Keep an eye on this grape because it is poised to become perhaps the next high demand white wine.
The flavor profile of Torrontes is similar to a Gewurztraminer or Viognier. You get a lot of gratification from this wine long before it ever reaches your lips. It is one of the aromatic grapes, with heady, intense floral aromas of orange blossoms, jasmine, and lavender, and tropical fruits from orange, lemon, lime, and grapefruit, to honeydew, apricot, lychee, and apple. There is often a spice note like white pepper, or a minerality picked up from the sandy, stony soils.
Torrontes is grown predominantly in two of Argentina’s wine regions, the North, and the Cuyo or Mendoza region in the central western part of the country. In the north the Cafayate Valley in the Salta province is a key place to find Torrontes. The wines here are often leaner, and crisper, with higher acidity. They grow at the highest altitudes in the world, over 5,600’ on steep slopes where furrows are dug to naturally irrigate the vineyards via snow melt coming down from the Andes Mountains. The average rainfall in Argentina is only 8” per year and with extremely permeable soil it is crucial to capture this mineral rich snow melt water. In the Mendoza or Cuyo region the elevation is much lower, 1,000 – 2,000’ and the soil is more fertile, though the climate is more arid, and desert-like. The wines from this region tend to be fuller and rounder, with more intense flavors.
An often-employed trellis system used in Argentina is the traditional Spanish parron. This trellis utilizes a series of overhead wires and support beams. This style of trellising allows for easy access to the clusters during harvest with full exposure for the foliage and good air circulation throughout.
I had to taste a few wines to get a feel for the varietal and its expression from the different regions. So I hosted a tasting party with some friends, most of whom don’t know much about wine beyond whether or not they like what’s in their glass—and in the end that is all that really matters about the wine anyway. All of the wines were in the value sweet spot of from $9 to $15. These kinds of tasting parties always go well because even the newest wine enthusiast can confidently identify many of the more prevalent aromas. Torrontes is also a food-friendly wine, pairing well with a large variety of white meats, seafood, and poultry. Spicy Asian-influenced dishes and salads with vinegar-based dressings also do well with a Torrontes. It is a great alternative wine to the more widely known Chardonnays, Pinot Grigios, and Sauvignon Blancs of the world.
Source: Palate Press
Argentina vs Chile
The identikit of South American wines
January 18, 2012 by Laura Saieg
The Argentine Wine Observatory presented the first part of a report that compares the wine industry of Argentina and Chile. It reveals data about planted hectares, finished products, and internal consumption of both countries.
Argentina and Chile are two of the most important wine industries in Latin America. They have diverse variables that enable them to establish in different markets. In order to analyze these two sectors, the Argentine Wine Observatory, a research organization coordinated by Coviar and the Stock Exchange of Mendoza, presented the first part of a research that compares the planted hectares, finished products, and internal consumption of both countries.
Chile has a total surface of 756,000 km², with over 17 million inhabitants and its per capita consumption amounts to 14 liters of wines approximately, whereas Argentina has a surface four times larger (2,780,000 km²), a population of more than 40 million and its consumption is 26 liters per capita. Chile intends 72% of its wine production for the foreign market, while in the case of Argentina, 72% of its production is destined for the domestic market.
As regards grapes, Carmenere is Chile’s signature variety; however, it has only 9,500 hectares, accounting for an 8% share of the total of wine grapes and 11% of red grapes. These figures lead it to be the fifth most important grown area. On the contrary, Argentina ‘s signature grape variety is Malbec, which reaches 17% of wine grapes and 33% of red ones, and it is the most produced and exported variety.
In Argentina, there are 218,000 grown hectares, of which 92.57% are concentrated on two provinces: Mendoza and San Juan, while in the case of Chile, 97.53% of 182,000 planted hectares are spread over five regions: Maule, Libertador General Bernardo O´Higgins, Metropolitana, Valparaíso and Bío Bío.
Ranking of wine grape varieties
In Chile, in 2010, red grapes represented 72.44% of the planted area while white ones reached 27.56%. The main four varieties in Chile (Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Merlot) cover 62% of the land planted with wine grapes.
By contrast, Argentina classifies wine varieties into red, white and other grapes. The red ones, in the ‘2011 Wine Census’, carried out by the National Institute of Viticulture (INV), amounted to 50.63%, in the case of whites 18.82% and the others (including rosé grapes) reached 30.54% of grown hectares. For this country, the four most important varieties are Malbec, Bonarda, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pedro Giménez, covering 42% of the planted area with wine grapes.
Regarding white grapes, Chile and Argentina enlarged their grown area in the case of both Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. However, Argentina’s signature white variety, Torrontés Riojano, showed a drop in the amount of hectares throughout the period of 2002-2011.
In Chile, Sauvignon Blanc area grew by 89% over the 2002-2010 period and the land with Chardonnay showed a 43% upward trend.
On the other hand, in Argentina, Sauvignon Blanc experienced an extraordinary boost of 166% and Chardonnay climbed by 38%, while Torrontés Riojano suffered a 5% fall.
Source: WineSur.com
Bob Pepi
“The Argentine Cabernets have a unique style”
Bob Pepi, American winemaker and judge in the next Argentina Wine Awards, underlined that Argentina should go beyond Malbec. For this, Cabernet among red wines and Torrontés within whites are its way out.
The Argentina Wine Awards will be held in Mendoza, from February 19 to 24. In this contest, organized by Coviar and Wines of Argentina, the international jury will consist of winemakers and technicians from all over the world. This year, more than 700 samples were submitted. Bob Pepi talked to WineSur about his expectations regarding the wines to be tasted.
- Unites States is a very important market for Argentine wineries, what is your opinion about the growth of Malbec consumption in that market? Will it endure?
I definitely think Malbec consumption will continue to grow because of its quality/value. Also, I believe it fills the need for a more drinkable Bordeaux variety that California Merlot has failed somewhat to do.
- I know you work with Bianchi and you´ve got several ‘best buys’, what is the formula for getting a good wine at a convenient price, even in time of crisis?
There is no set formula. The idea is to start with good fruit, which there is usually in abundance in Argentina, and to keep the wine fruit forward with little or no wood aging.
- What do you expect to taste in the next Argentina Wine Awards?
I expect to see more wineries producing wines that compete well in the international market, as well as improved quality with Malbecs and Torrontés, and a broader range of Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends.
- What do you think about the future of Torrontés?
I think the future of Torrontés is strong, at least in the US market that I know. US consumers are always looking for fresh, fruity white wines that they can enjoy on their own or with the lighter dishes. That is why we are seeing an upswing with sales from whites from Alsace, Germany, etc.
- Is it time for Argentina to go beyond Malbec?
Argentina should probably always lead with Malbec, because it grows it so much better than most parts of the world. That being said, I think Argentina should spend more time promoting varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, as it produces that as well as the best areas in the world and the Argentine Cabernets have a style that is unique, falling somewhere stylistically between a good red Bordeaux and a California Cabernet.
Source: WineSur.com
90
Wine Advocate #198
Dec 2011 Jay Miller Drink: 2013 - 2020
The 2010 Malbec Reserva spent 12 months in seasoned French and American oak. It sports an alluring nose of balsam wood, smoke, spice box, floral notes, and black cherry. In the glass it opens to display excellent volume, balance, and length as well as enough structure to evolve for another 1-2 years. It will be at its best from 2013 to 2020.
Source: eRobert Parker Wine Advocate
88
Wine Advocate #198
Dec 2011 Jay Miller Drink: 2011 - 2014
The 2009 Malbec spent 8 months in French and American oak. Spice, tobacco, leather, and cherry aromas titillate the nose while pointing toward a savory, flavorful, nicely proportioned Malbec that is ready to drink now and over the next 2-3 years. It is a very good value.
Source: eRobert Parker Wine Advocate
88
Wine Advocate #198
Dec 2011 Jay Miller Drink: 2011 - 2018
The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon displays spicy cassis, cedar, and floral notes leading to a savory, ripe, easy-to-understand Cabernet that has enough structure to provide enjoyment for another 6-7 years.
Source: eRobert Parker Wine Advocate
87
Wine Advocate #198
Dec 2011 Jay Miller Drink: 2011 - 2014
The 2010 Viognier is slightly reticent aromatically but with coaxing reveals notes of peach, apricot, and spring flowers. Lively acid on the palate nicely balances the wine’s ripe fruit flavors. Drink this very good value over the next 2-3 years.
The Altas Cumbres label is produced by Lagarde.
Source: eRobert Parker Wine Advocate
87
Wine Advocate #198
Dec 2011 Jay Miller Drink: 2011 - 2012
The 2010 Torrontes, produced from Salta grown grapes, offers up a fragrant perfume of spring flowers and tropical fruit aromas. Savory, dry, and intense in the glass, this well-balanced wine is a very good value meant for drinking over the next 12-18 months.
The Altas Cumbres label is produced by Lagarde.
Source: eRobert Parker Wine Advocate
86 Points
Wine Advocate #198
Dec 2011 Jay Miller Drink: 2011 - 2015
The 2010 Malbec is a medium-weight effort that received the same elevage as the Cabernet. It displays notes of spice box, cherry blossom, cherry cola and black currant that point to an easygoing, forward, tasty wine that offers solid value in a wine meant for drinking over the next 3-4 years.
The Altas Cumbres label is produced by Lagarde.
Source: eRobert Parker Wine Advocate
Top Ten Wine Trends in 2011
Easton, Md., December 15, 2011 — As we wind down the remaining days of 2011 it is interesting to look back and reflect on the year of wine. Here are my thoughts on the Top Ten Wine Trends of 2011.
1. South America Rules! So many wine drinkers are looking for value priced wines under $20 and South America was there to deliver. Malbecs from Argentina continue to grow in popularity but Chile’s Carmenère is also making great strides. Red aren’t the only stars here look for the unique Torrontes based whites from Argentina or the elegant Sauvignon Blancs of Chile. Look for more and more wines to surface from lesser known wine regions like Peru and Brazil.
2. Wine Delivered to Your Door. Maryland just joined 37 other states in allowing shipments to consumers direct from wineries. This is definitely a step in the right direction allowing MD wineries to ship to other states and out of state wineries to ship to MD. Sadly shipments are not permitted to and from wine retailers so there is still more work to be done. Learn more abou tthis issue at www.freethegrapes.com
Desperately Seeking Natural Wines. Consumers are increasingly looking for wines that are made with the least amount processing as possible. The old stereotype that organic wines won’t taste great is disappearing and there is a great thirst for organic, biodynamic and sustainable winemaking.
3. Think and Drink Local. More and more consumers are turning to local wineries to experience what once was only found in California. Local wineries in every state give consumers the chance to tour, taste and experience wine without hopping a plane. Every state in the union has a winery including Alaska—think ice wine.
Celebrity Crush. More and more celebrities are bitten by the wine bug every year. This year some notable additions include purchases of wineries in Virginia. Donald Trump who purchased the bankrupt Kluge winery and Steve Case co-founder of AOL who bought Sweely Estate Winery. Actor Stanley Tucci also launched a TV show called Vine Talk where celebrities sit around a table drinking and talking about wine. Will this celebrity wine invasion continue? Time will tell.
4. Thinking Outside the Bottle. Consumers are more and more comfortable with alternative packaging like the dreaded box. Premium boxes like Bota Box, Blanc Box and Big House are giving consumers a tastier option in box wine. Tetra Packs, Wine Tubes, Plastic bottles and pouches are also a trend. At this year’s Aspen Food & Wine Festival the American Plastics Council featured some of these products.
5. Oddballs Rule. Consumers are drinking more off beat varietals like Tempranillo, Petite Sirah, Gruner Veltliner and Albarino as they look to expand their horizons and stretch their wine budgets. Chardonnay and Cabernet are still strong but the Millennial (twenty something’s), Gen X and some adventurous Boomer consumers are more willing to give new varietals a try.
6. Grape Technology. Apps, Blogs and wine websites are increasingly giving consumers a place to turn for information on wine. These forums along with social media are a great alternative from the traditional media perspective found in the wine magazines and from wine critics. If your friend in Oregon likes a certain Pinot Noir that might give you more of an idea on how it tastes then the traditional tasting notes and ratings that have ruled in the past.
Women in Wine. Women consume the majority of the wine in this country but have made up a smaller role in the wine industry. This continues to change with more and more women entering the industry and achieved either the Master Sommelier or Master of Wine ranks.Women wine makers are found all over the world and craft some of the most highly decorated and priced on the market.
7. Table Wine. Wine is increasingly a normal part of the dinner experience in America. People in general know that in moderation red wine has heart health benefits and are incorporating it onto the dinner table. As more and more people experience and understand food and wine pairing this can only continue to trend upwards. Consumers that have travelled to Europe see firsthand how successfully wine can be part of the recipe of your meal.
Source: Washington Times
Wines that takes care of the environment:
Cremaschi Furlotti Certified Sustainable
• This is the first Chilean vineyard to pass the audit and gain the certification "Certified Sustainable Wine of Chile."
In a ceremony hosted by Wines of Chile- through the Wine Technology Consortium and the University of Talca- Cremaschi Furlotti obtained the certificate of sustainability and became the first vineyard audited to approve this certification. On the occasion, 14 Chilean vineyards were certified after completing the sustainability code of the Chilean wine industry (green area).
The certificate "Certified Sustainable Wine of Chile" is given to the vineyards that gather environmental highest standards in all agronomic processes, winemaking techniques and social responsibility. This was possible through the certification project of the National Code of Sustainable Wine Industry and aims to bring together the largest number of vineyards to this initiative.
Green Soul
A wine is not only good for its intense flavor, full body and subtle aromas, but it’s also recognized for its soul. And Cremaschi Furlotti wines have a green spirit.
The production process is completely sustainable, seeking to contribute to the environmental care. From planting to bottling, the company uses only biodegradable and ecological selected products.
The environmental policy of the vineyard includes actions such as control of erosion and leaching, a series of soil analysis and drainage test, management of waste and an exclusive emphasis on the energy used in all processes. You can also find good practices in micronutrient management, fertilization, and weed and pest control. These are some of the sustainable techniques the vineyard applied.
Cremaschi Furlotti makes an invitation to all the vineyards of Chile to join this initiative and participate in this Sustainability Certification in order to tell the world that we take care of our wine paradise.
"We are proud to have developed the vision of Chilean viticulture improving our relations with the environment, our workers and community. Our long-term perspective, plus the work we made together for more than three years in the development and implementation of the Sustainability Program, has helped us raise awareness that this is the right way to develop as individuals, business and society," said the President of the Cremaschi Furlotti Vineyard, Pablo Cremaschi.
Source: Wines of Chile
More than Malbec
YES, Malbec may be the grape—and wine—of the moment, but there are other offerings on the Argentine wine list. This was the gist of the wine exposition organized by the Embassy of Argentina last month at the Rockwell Club. Philippine importers and distributors of Argentine wines were invited to present their selections and set up tasting tables, but before the event, Minister Jaime Goldaracena, the embassy’s trade attaché, made the rounds of hotels and restaurants to personally invite chefs, restaurant owners, food and beverage directors and wine buyers.
Argentina now ranks as the world’s sixth biggest producer of wine, Mr. Goldaracena is quick to point out. Mendoza, where 70 percent of the country’s total wine output is produced, is the largest wine region with more vine acreage than that of New Zealand and Australia combined. The other major wine regions are Salta, in the northernmost part of the country, and Patagonia, the most southerly. In Salta, where high-altitude vineyards rise from 5,000 to 10,000 feet above sea level, Torrontés, the Muscat-like white grape, reigns supreme. In the provinces of Neuquèn and Rio Negro in Patagonia, it is the Pinot Noir grape that excels. But in all Argentina, Malbec is still the most widely planted grape variety, flourishing in the country’s arid climate and sandy soil, while capable of expressing the unique terroir of each region. As Laura Cátena (of the renowned Cátena wine-producing family) writes in her book Vino Argentino, “...a Malbec from San Carlos is so different—blacker, more floral and more mineral—from the jammy and smooth old-vine Malbecs of Lujàn de Cuyo.”
Malbec has its origins in France and was a major component of the Bordeaux grand cru blends until the plant louse phylloxera ravaged vineyards in the 1860s. The grape never truly recovered in Bordeaux (though it continues to be the main grape in Cahors, southwest of Bordeaux) but even before the deadly vine disease, Malbec had already made its way to Argentina via vine cuttings brought into the country for the Quinta Nacional, the vine nursery established in Mendoza in 1853. In time, dedicated vignerons began to focus on quality, led by Nicolas Cátena who spearheaded the fine tuning of Malbec, and whose award-winning wines sparked the worldwide interest in the Argentine wine industry.
Apart from Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Bonarda, Merlot, Tempranillo, Syrah and Pinto Noir are Argentina’s staple red varieties. And while Torrontés is the leading white grape, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat of Alexandra make up the roster of primary white varieties.
Examples of all of these are available in the Philippines through local wine importers who presented their Argentine portfolios at the Rockwell Club. Up for tasting were bottlings from Altos Las Hormigas, Domaine Vistalba, Filus, Finca Flichman. Kaiken, Lagarde, Terrazas de los Andes, Salentein, Viña Doña Paula, Trapiche and Trivento. Malbecs were a-plenty, from the juicy, easy-drinking style to the more concentrated, dense and muscular types.
Not lost in the maze of Malbecs were the Cabernet Sauvignons, marked by rich cassis and dark plum, subtle herb notes and ample tannins. There was a lovely Torrontés from Salta—delicately perfumed, with orange and melon notes framed by bright acidity—from the Lagarde Winery, imported by young entrepreneurs Carlo Lorenzana and Bob Tenchavez, The two are very new in the wine import business, but the Lorenzanas have known the owners of Lagarde (the Pescarmona family)—and thus their wines—for years. Also from Lagarde was the Altas Cumbres Brut Chardonnay, the only Argentine sparkling wine at the tasting and the rated “Henry Gran Guarda Mendoza,” a muscular yet supple Malbec blend produced only in outstanding vintages.
With Malbec leading the way, there is no doubt that there will be heightened interest in Argentine wines. There is no doubt too that here in Manila, the Argentine Embassy will make sure that happens. (Already there is talk about celebrating World Malbec Day in Manila in cooperation with the trade organization, Wines of Argentina.)
Source: Business Mirror
Chile Moving Up In The World
The latest Nielsen data that tracks the UK off-trade up to October 2011 reveals that Chile has moved up to 5th place in the list of best selling wine countries, overtaking South Africa for the first time.
In the gloomy economic climate that is depressing wine sales generally, Chile was one of only four counties that increased volumes over the past 12 months (the others are New Zealand, Italy, and Spain). Chile’s off trade sales of 8.5 million cases, valued at £452 million, gave it a market share of 9.1% overall.
Chile’s performance in the Independents (Impulse) sector was even more impressive with sales up 10% catapulting Chile above France into 4th place with a market share now standing at 10.2%.
Commenting on the figures, Michael Cox Wines of Chile’s Director - Europe said “It is satisfying to see the efforts of the producers and importers being rewarded with more solid progress. Despite rising prices and unhelpful currency issues, value for money remains Chile’s watchword and this underpins its success.”
Source: Wines of Chile
Wines of Argentina Presents the New Wine Ambassador
Mendoza, December 12, 2011. During a cocktail held in the evening of last Monday 12 at Dominio del Plata winery, whose owner is Susana Balbo –WofA’s vicepresident –, Wines of Argentina presented the new ambassador of Argentine wine: Verónica Cangemi, the renowned Mendocinian soprano.
Born in Mendoza, Verónica Cangemi is a prestigious soprano with wide experience in international lyrical music. She has traveled extensively, representing Argentina with passion and professionalism in many countries.
“I am greatly honored and very happy. My country’s most representative wine, Malbec, comes from my native province, and I wish to promote it around the world,” said the 47-year-old artist, who is considered by international critics to be one of the world’s three best sopranos today.
At present, Verónica Cangemi is developing her professional career in Europe, the United States and Japan, among other locations, where she holds her performances and concerts. She has also founded the Argentine Baroque Orchestra and created a scholarship program at Universidad de Congreso (Mendoza), where she lectures and communicates her knowledge and professional experience to her students. She has more than 20 years’ experience on the stage and has recorded 23 albums.
“This distinction fills me with pride and gives me the opportunity to promote Argentine wine at each presentation I give on any stage in the world,” stated the artist.
Verónica Cangemi became the first woman to be designated ambassador of Argentine wine. Ballet dancer Julio Bocca and composer Gustavo Santaolalla were formerly appointed as Argentina’s Wine Ambassadors and now participate in a program created by Wines of Argentina in 2008, by which personalities with outstanding professional careers are chosen to contribute, through their activities, to the promotion of Argentine wine around the world.
Source: Wines of Argentina
87 Points Bodega Sottano Classico Malbec, 2009
Opens with burnt rubber aromas that soon yield to berry fruit, char and dark chocolate. The palate is snappy and tangy despite feeling full, while the flavors of herbs and berry are quickly replaced by resiny oak. Finishes firm, with herbal notes and carob. — M.S. (11/1/2011) — 87
Source: Wine Enthusiast
91 points
eRobertParker.com #184
Aug 2009 Jay Miller
Drink: 2011 - 2021
The purple-colored 2006 Henry Gran Guarda N?1, composed of 40% Cabernet Franc, 31% Malbec, and 29% Syrah, spent 24 months in new French oak. It displays an expressive bouquet of pain grille, scorched earth, tar, clove, cassis, and blueberry. Medium- to full-bodied on the palate with incipient complexity, the wine has superior depth, grip, and savory flavors. Balanced and lengthy, it will benefit from 2-3 years of additional cellaring and offer a drinking window extending from 2011 to 2021.
Source: eRobert Parker Wine Advocate
Score: 85
Country: Argentina
Region: Mendoza
Issue: Dec 31, 2009
Rounded, with medium-weight anise, butter and creamed peach notes. A friendly, open-knit finish. Drink now. 7,000 cases made. –JM
Source: Wine Spectator
86 Lagarde 2010 Altas Cumbres Cabernet
Sauvignon (Mendoza). Rubbery aromas vie
with solid berry fruit notes. The palate is basic and a
touch edgy in feel, with red plum, currant and herbal
flavors. Peppery and minty on the finish, but juicy and
correct overall. Dangerous Wine Group LLC. Best Buy.
—M.S.
abv: 14% Price: $13
Source: Wine Enthusiast December 31, 2011 Buying Guide
85 Lagarde 2010 Altas Cumbres Malbec
(Mendoza). Scratchy, slightly foxy berry and
cherry aromas lead to an active, juicy palate with berry,
perky red plum and herbal flavors. Finishes fresh and
tangy, with adequate kick. A presentable, normal type of
Malbec. Dangerous WIne Group LLC. —M.S.
abv: 13.7% Price: $13
Source: Wine Enthusiast December 31, 2011 Buying Guide
88 Lagarde 2010 Malbec (Mendoza). Big and
boisterous on the nose, with ripe plum, berry,
smoke and meaty aromas. Mouthfilling and edgy feeling,
with bold berry and plum flavors that feature an
herbal, peppery aftertaste. Earthy and herbal leaning on
the lengthy finish. Dangerous Wine Group LLC. —M.S.
abv: 13.8% Price: $18
Source: Wine Enthusiast December 31, 2011 Buying Guide
93
Wine Advocate #203
Oct 2012 Neal Martin 93 Drink: 2013 - 2025 $90
The 2010 Judas Malbec shows a little more fruit intensity on the nose than the 2009, with seductive notes of blackberry, red cherries, fresh strawberry and violets as well as vanillary oak yet to be subsumed. The palate is sweet and caressing on the entry, belying the backbone that becomes more evident towards the finish. There is certainly very good weight, with superb minerality and vivacity towards the finish. Excellent. Drink 2013-2025.
Source: Wine Advocate #203
91 Sottano 2010 Reserva Malbec (Mendoza). Chocolate
and charcoal aromas form a dark and masculine greeting.
There’s also coffee and an herbal note to the nose. Lush
but not heavy, tannic or plodding, with powerful black fruit
and herbal flavors. Runs deep and long on the finish;
impressive. Dangerous Wine Group LLC. —M.S.
abv: 14.2% Price: $26
Source: Wine Enthusiast December 2011 Buying Guide
88 Sottano 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon (Mendoza).
Stocky, smoky and well composed on
the nose, with aromas of blackberry and hickory leading
the charge. Shows pulse and concentration on the palate
as toasty oak, chocolate and chewiness blend nicely
with black fruit and cassis flavors. Firm, deep and tannic
on the finish. Dangerous Wine Group LLC. —M.S.
abv: 14.4% Price: $17
Source: Wine Enthusiast December 31, 2011 Buying Guide
Although there is no denying that one of the most delicious elements of fine wine is the pleasure of disputing someone else's opinion, sometimes it seems that this can get out of hand. Put simply: Is there anything that we can agree on? In the interests of what might be called "wine comity," I would like to take a stab at some possible categories that perhaps we can all agree upon. Of course, I have no illusions that any such thing will be accomplished. But, what the hell, it's worth a try.
For example:
The Best Deal in Fine Wine Today Is …
Malbec from Argentina. I admit that this is a category open to other nominations that are equally as legitimate as Argentina's Malbec. Nevertheless, among all of the many deals available today—Loire Valley wines, various reds from southern Italy and an uncountable number of wines from Spain—
I'm prepared to hold firm about Argentine Malbec. What's it got that makes it such a great deal? Argentina's Malbecs offer a killer combination of genuine originality and an almost absurdly low price. No other wine tastes quite like the best Malbecs from Argentina. This originality is all the more impressive considering that Malbec is not exactly unknown elsewhere, especially in its native France. Yet when it was transplanted to Argentina it became a startlingly new wine life-form. All that for what? Fifteen bucks a bottle?
Matt Kramer Drinking Out Loud Posted December 6th, 2011
Source: Wine Spectator (subscription required)
