Wine of the week: Santa Julia Reserva Mountain Blend 2019

Once again, the snobs try to ruin a terrific wine for the rest of us

This wine, as well-made an Argentine red blend as I’ve tasted in years, was criticized on CellarTracker (the blog’s unofficial wine inventory app) for being too alcoholic.

Its alcohol? 13.9 percent. Would that all those 14.5 percent chardonnays I have to taste had that little alcohol in them.

So, once again, a wine that doesn’t taste the way someone has decided that it should taste instead of letting the wine be itself — gets ripped. Is it any wonder that I worry about the future of the wine business?

Know that the Santa Julia ($12, purchased, 13.9%) is an Argentine red with about two-thirds malbec; the rest is cabernet franc. The combination works: The latter gives the the malbec some structure and a little licorice, while the former provides lovely, rich, and ripe fruit (plums, some jammy berries?). Plus, it has enough tannins and acidity to taste like a red blend, and not a syrupy and thick supermarket malbec.

Highly recommend, and a candidate for the 2023 Cheap Wine of the Year (plus the Hall of Fame). This wine is light enough for summer barbecues, but would also hold its own with something more formal. Santa Julia, long a terrific producer of wine that most of us can afford to buy, continues to do just that.

Imported by Winesellers Ltd.