Tag Archives: Argentine wine

Winebits 297: Sweet wine, imported wine, regional wine

? The Winestream Media always acts like the Winestream Media: Shanken News Daily, a news service for the wine business, ran an item last week noting that Indiana ?s Oliver Winery was taking advantage of the sweet wine trend to boost sales. What the story missed was that Oliver was selling hundreds of thousands of cases of sweet wine long before it became a national trend, and is actually one of the regional wineries that started the trend (along with Missouri ?s St. James, North Carolina ?s Duplin, and Texas ? Llano Estacado). How did Shanken get this so wrong? Because, as with all members of the Winestream Media, nothing happens unless they say it does, which is why so much wine writing, wine analysis, and wine criticism in this country is so poorly done. I once did a piece for a trade magazine owned by the same company that owns the news service, and had a fight with an editor who insisted that Texas ? liquor laws were so unbelievable that what I wrote couldn ?t be true. She just knew the way the world worked, and wasn ?t going to let the facts disturb her.

? Where ?s all that French wine? W. Blake Gray, who started out to defend the quality of Australian wine, has done yeoman work in analyzing where the imported wine comes from that most of us drink. I think even Blake was surprised to find out how popular Argentine wine, and specifically malbec, was, and how much less popular French wine was. Of course, if you read most mainstream wine criticism, you ?ll get the opposite impression, because who wants to write about $8 malbec when there ?s all that Bordeaux and Burgundy to drool over?

? The problems with regional wine: My pal Kyle Schlachter, long a defender of regional wine, is also smart enough to know that not all regional wine is created equal. This blog post, focusing on how consumers use social media to critique wineries, is pointed, excellently written, and painfully accurate in discussing how too many regional wineries don ?t understand customer service, don ?t care enough about wine quality, and don ?t want to work with anyone else to improve their business. I saw this all the time when I did Drink Local Wine, and it always made me crazy; Kyle has more patience than I do.

Wine of the week: Trivento Malbec Reserve 2012

Trivento_Reserve_Malbec_NLThe Wine Curmudgeon does not drink much malbec, other than to taste it so I can write write that I don ?t drink much malbec. The vast majority of the malbec we buy (and we buy wineries and wineries of it, with malbec sales up almost 50 percent in 2011) is full of sweet fruit and without balance, the dreaded cherry cough syrup style of wine.

The Trivento ($11, sample, 14%) isn ?t one of those wines. It ?s a surprisingly solid Argentine malbec that outshines most of the other $10 versions that are on store shelves. Yes, there is lots of blueberry fruit aroma and flavor, the hallmark of cheap Argentine malbec and all that most of the other wines offer.

But the Trivento also has a fine, grippy back end, and that was the surprise: Nicely done tannins and even some acid balancing all that fruit and letting you know that this is a red wine made to taste like a red wine. That ?s a rare treat.

Also surprising: The wine needs food, which is something that most of the others don ?t. Serve it with beef, as the Argentines would, or even roast chicken.

Wine of the week: Yellow + Blue Torrontes 2011


Yellw + Blue TorrontesYellow + Blue makes some of the finest cheap wine in the world, and I ?ve waxed poetic about almost every one of the company ?s releases. The torrontes ($13 for a 1-liter box, purchased) is no exception.

So why does this review come with the availability caution? Because retailers still haven ?t figured out a way to successfully sell wine, like Yellow + Blue, that comes in a 1-liter box. Most store shelves and racks are made to take standard-sized wine bottles, so anything that isn ?t a standard-sized bottle gets stuffed in a corner. And if a product is stuffed in a corner, it won ?t sell as well as a product that ?s prominently displayed, regardless of quality. After all, when ?s the last time you got on your hands and knees to look for wine?

Hence retailers are wary of carrying something that they know they ?ll have trouble selling. Which means the Yellow + Blue wines are harder to find than they should be. Which is too bad, because they ?re well worth the effort ? hands and knees even, which is almost what I had to do for this one.

Torrontes is a white Argentine grape that has been made so badly for so long ? sweet and sticky ? that I ?m surprised there ?s still a market for it. The Yellow + Blue, though, shows just enough sweetness to be torrontes, but is in no way cloying. Look for peach fruit and even a tiny bit of lime zest as well as a very pleasant floral aroma and a peach pit finish.

Serve chilled as summer comes to an end, and pair it with the usual summer and spicy fare. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame (since 1 liter is about one-third more than a standard bottle, making the price about $10 a bottle).

Father’s Day wine 2012

Father's Day wine 2012
Yes, son, wine is a great Father’s Day present

What, you don ?t think wine and Father ?s Day are a good fit? Then you don ?t know all of the dads that I know, since they find wine a fine gift at any time. Whatever you do, though, keep our wine gift-giving guidelines in mind — “Don’t buy someone wine that you think they should like; buy them what they will like.”

These suggestions should get you started:

? Hey Mambo Sultry Red ($12, sample): Red California table wine that deserves better than its hokey back label. Simple, basic, and fulfilling, with enough black fruit to be noticeable, but not so much that it tastes like a juice box. Pair with grilled sausages, and don ?t be afraid to chill it a little.

? Bodega Amalaya Tinto ($17, sample): Much better than than I thought it would be, with sweet cherry fruit that was more bright than stewed (which can be a problem with Argentine malbecs). It was still soft, but pleasantly so. A terrific barbecue wine.

? Lucien Albrecht Cremant d ?Alsace Brut Rose NV ($17, sample): The decline in the euro means this sparkling wine may return to more affordable territory, which is worth waiting for. Crisp and bubbly and refreshing, with subtle cranberry and cherry fruit and just the thing for a hot summer Sunday.

More about Father ?s Day wine:
? Father’s Day wine 2011
? Father’s Day wine 2010
? Wine of the week: Cellar No. 8 Eight
? Wine of the week: Villa Maria Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon

Cartoon courtesy nanozero87 via OpenClipArt, using a Creative Commons license

Winebits 219: Wine labels, Argentine wine, cava

? Reading a wine label: The great Tim McNally offers a wine label reading primer, and it's as good anything I have seen. "Who can read this damn thing and make any sense of it at all? Long words, abbreviations, references to places no one ever heard of, and not a mention at all as to what grapes are in the bottle," he writes. "The world ?s worst wine labels, when it comes to disclosing information, are from … the United States. … Our labels tell us practically nothing. Conversely, when you know what to look for on some other country ?s wine labels, you will learn just about everything you need to know about the wine except what it smells and tastes like, which are subjective anyway."

? More than malbec: Dave McIntyre takes a look at Argentina and discovers there is more to the country's wines than the tidal wave of malbec washing up on our shores. "Think fresh, elegant cabernet sauvignon," Dave writes, "plummy, earthy syrah; and juicy bonarda. Most exciting may be Argentina ?s pinot noir. …" It's a well-thought out look at Argentina, and though some of the wines are pricey, Dave finds some great bargains, including a $13 pinot from Nieto Senetiner that I will look for and review here.

? Cava sales soaring: How well is cava, the Spanish sparkling wine, doing in the world marketplace? Consider that export sales are at an all-time high. The Spanish sold 12.7 million cases of cava to the rest of us in 2011, 2 percent more than in 2010. The reasons for this are obvious: Tremendous marketing, great prices and even better value, and quality that has to be tasted to be believed. Right, $10 Hall of Fame? Most impressively, the Spanish are breaking down the wine snob barrier that has always held cava back — the idea that sparkling wine that doesn't come from Champagne (and is cheap) isn't worth drinking.

Wine of the week: Picada 15 2010

This wine is why the Wine Curmudgeon loves his job.

It was a sample, and the only the only thing I knew about it was that it cost $9 and came from Patagonia, which is the Argentine wine region that isn't Mendoza. I had no expectations; Patagonian wines aren't common, and the guy who gave me the sample knew nothing else about the wine. Plus the winery web site didn't work, and there were few references to the wine elsewhere in the cyber-ether.

And what did I find? Wine of the Week delight. Hall of Fame bliss. This may be the best $10 red I've tasted since the demise of the much beloved Solaz. The Picada is a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot,  malbec, and pinot noir (yes, Argentine pinot) and the result is balance between acid, fruit and tannin in a way that almost never happens with wine at this price. Yes, it's fruity, but the fruit isn't sweetish or heavy, like most $10 Mendoza wines. Which is the reason I don't drink most $10 malbecs and malbec blends.

Yes, the Picada is a little thin in the middle, but that's because I'm looking for something to complain about. And, believe it or not, there is a white blend that was almost as tasty, and a malbec that was somewhere between the white and the red blends. Drink this if you want a glass of red wine but don't want to be overwhelmed by fruit, acid, alcohol or tannims; it will pair with almost any red wine kind of food. Highly recommended.

Winebits 164: Argentine wine, Gruet, corks and screwcaps

? Argentina ahead of Chile: Argentina exported more wine to the U.S. in 2010 than arch-rival Chile, which may have been the first time that has ever happened. Argentina ranks fourth, behind Italy, France and Australia, as a supplier of wine to the U.S. market. The two countries have been fighting for several years to see which would be the biggest exporter to the U.S. market, and it has turned into a point of national wine pride.

? Gruet says it didn’t do anything wrong: The story is more than a bit confusing, but the gist is this: When Laurent Gruet, whose family owns New Mexico’s Gruet Winey, bid for Texas’ bankrupt Cap*Rock Winery last year, Laurent wasn’t acting for the winery. Hence, neither he nor the winery is responsible for damages in a lawsuit relating to the failed bid. And, for good measure, the company that owns Gruet, which is controlled by the Gruet family, says Laurent “lacked the requisite mental capacity ? to bid for Cap*Rock.

? Everything you ever wanted to know about corks: The article in Practical Winery & Vineyard is quite technical, complete with diagrams of molecules, but the language isn’t too difficult and it’s easily the best piece I’ve ever seen on the difference between corks, screwcaps, and artificial corks. Plus, authors Carlos Macku, Ph.D., and Kyle Reed, Ph.D., from the department of technical services at Cork Supply in Benicia, Calif., threw in some some academic humor: “Wine packaging (probably one of the most challenging of all food barriers) has certainly evolved from the days when the product was transported, stored, and sold in Egyptian amphorae or medieval wooden barrels.”