Wine Outlook

My, how things can change in ten years, especially in the world of wine. In the 1997 (burgundy) copy of The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia, Tom Stevenson muses about the differences between Chile and Argentina. He proposes:

What really excites modern consumers is premium-quality wine at bargain (but not necessarily cheap) prices. Argentina is perfectly placed to supply this demand, when its producers wake up to the fact. If and when they do, the producers of Chile might have something to worry about. At the moment, however, Chile has nothing to fear from Argentina.

Well, readers and drinkers, those producers have stopped hitting the snooze button. They’re up and at it, as can be attested by my attendance at a Malbec tasting the other night. After meeting The Winehiker up at Fogarty, he invited me to an Argentinian sampling of vino. I’m glad I accepted. We tasted six wines, ranging from $15 to $85, which we rated on a scale of 20 points, using our handy scoring sheets. I thought I might be intimidated by the formality of it, but that actually made for better analysis–which was not the case at the Riesling tasting a few days prior.

The results: the group favorite was the 2003 Bramare Malbec (a Paul Hobbs venture), out of Mendoza. Running at the most expensive, this wine spoke to me of vanilla, toast, and sweet strawberries. My personal favorite was one of the least costly: a 2005 Terrazas Malbec. While the palate was almost pure fruit, the nose gave off lovely hints of caramel, allspice, and cinnamon. Another bargain beauty was the 2004 Melipal, with its sweet plum, blackberry, tobacco, and coffee.

My two which scored the lowest came from a lack of balance and luscious fruits you come to expect from Malbec. I correctly guessed there was some age on the 2001 Enzo Bianchi from San Rafael, due to the subdued cherry flavor, but it also seemed a bit hot (though it only had 13% abv). The 2005 La Posta was rather green, too vegetal for my tastes.

And of course, I had to bring some culinary delights. In addition to the yummy cheese provided, along with meat balls and my first ever taste of brussel sprouts, I brought beef crostini, half decorated with roasted red pepper aioli, the other half with with the bourbon BBQ sauce I had previously made for my pizza.

Overall, a great experience that reminded me I need to drink more Malbec.

….Farley Walker

Malbec tasting, 2003 Bramare Malbec, Mendoza, 2005 Terrazas Malbec