Dr Vino's wine blog

As I headed to Mendoza, I was haunted by a couple of sentences Eric Asimov recently wrote from a Wines of the Times tasting panel on Malbec:

“…words came readily enough to sum up the tasting — two-dimensional, narrow-gauge, simple. Nothing wrong with those words, but not very many thrills among them.”

Chilling stuff for the traveler to Malbec Country! I didn’t really understand what “two-dimensional” meant but it certainly sounded like damning with faint praise. When I was on the ground, I put the question to Manuel Louzada, winemaker at Domaine Chandon. His reply came with a sketch on his tasting mat, which I attempted to recreate here:

Essentially he said he could understand such a criticism because Malbec has a good attack and very good midpalate while it trails off at the finish. (If you think an attack is a military or a soccer term you’d be right; in wine tasting it also means how the wine tastes when it first enters your mouth—besides wet).

The other various arcs show the profile of other grapes. Tempranillo (blue, above) has a good attack, weaker midpalate, and a strong finish. Cabernet (red) has a similar arc he suggested but not quite as much on the attack. Syrah (yellow) has a broad midpalate but is kind of weak on the attack and the finish. Pinot Noir (green) has a finish that goes on and on—when done right.

This explains why some of the most expensive wines from the region are blends. The $70 Cheval des Andes 2003 (find this wine), perhaps my favorite of the big boy “grand cru” wines I tasted in Mendoza, is a blend of Malbec and Cab to give it a full style. Paul Hobbs added 5 percent Cab to his $100 Magadalena Toso (find this wine). And the $85 Nicolas Catena Zapata 2002 (find this wine) is a 72-28 blend of Cab and Malbec. This makes sense since Malbec has traditionally been a blender in Bordeaux and the Loire. Looking at the graphic above, a blend of the red and the black lines hits all the highs.

“The force of the Cabernet is softened by the Malbec,” José Galante winemaker at Catena said. “We make the best wine that we can in the Nicolás Catena Zapata.”

The various vineyard sites also have different tasting arcs for the same variety Galante said (see my notes on tasting Menodoza’s terroir). He works to blend those and give the single varietal wines more heft and character.

But what about Malbec on its own? “Malbec is sexy, it seduces,” said Manuel Louzada of Chandon. Indeed, this traditional backup singer is ready for a starring role. The prolonged growing season for the grapes in this high desert, which can have 50 percent more growing days than cool Bordeaux, makes the tannins in the Malbecs from Mendoza sweet and approachable. For white wine fans who object to the dryness or mouth-chomping tannins in Cabernet, reach for a Malbec from Argentina and you will not only have a wine that is easy on the palate but also easy on the wallet. If Malbec wines are two-dimensional, then the world is flat.

Ruca Malen, Yaoquen, Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec, 2004 $9 (find this wine)
When I greeted Mrs. Vino with a glass of this wine after she came home at the end of a long day last week she took a sip and said, “delicious!” I couldn’t have said it better myself. This blend of Cab and Malbec hit the high points of the flavor arc (more on that here) for a low price tag. Inky purple in color, with blackcurrant and violets in the aromas, this lush and velvety wine is a guaranteed crowd pleaser whether outside by the grill or inside at the table. But you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank since it is such a steal. Importer: Domaine Select Wine Estates, NY, NY.

tags: wine | malbec

Silly me. I called the phenomenon of French winemakers who are forced to distill their surplus wine into ethanol, a fuel additive, “vin diesel.” But the real vin diesel has just stood up.

The fashionistas who run Diesel jeans know how to charge since their denim can cost $150 or more. They have taken this ability to wine and rolled out two red wines and a Chardonnay that fetch $190 in wine shops in London and almost $300 in restaurants accoding to Decanter. The wines are not available yet in the US. (check availability)

Actually, vino diesel would be more apt since Renzo Rosso, founder of the Diesel brand, has hired enologist Roberto Cipresso to make the wines for him from a 12 acre vineyard on his farm in Veneto. “For successful living,” runs their tag line. Indeed.

tags: wine | fashion | jeans

After plotting wine to go from shops in New York and shops in Chicago, I now have plotted wine to drink on premises in New York City wine bars!

Check out the East Village/Lower East Side! It has to be the wine bar capital of the world with that density. I’ll have to organize a Dr. Vino wine bar crawl there.

As ever, post your comments here or drop me a line with any comments/suggestions/additions. Which are your faves?

Opinions on the 2005 Bordeaux vintage are starting to roll in…Jancis Robinson gives it a thumbs up, writing “there are more very good to great wines than I can remember in any other vintage.” James Suckling got in early this year with his opinion saying the wines of the vintage represented “some of the best I have tasted in my career…” Robert Parker’s comments will come in the next couple of weeks…Now consumers await the prices from the chateaus, which will undoubtedly be as high as–or higher than–the praise.

After being spurned last year, the acquisitive Constellation has finally been successful in its attempt to take over Vincor, Canada’s largest producer. Vincor’s management spent months battling a $33 a share takeover attempt but now has acquiesced to this offer at $36.50 valuing the company at C$1.5bln. What I’m wondering is when Constellation will make a bid for a producer in Argentina?

Russia has banned the import of wines from Georgia and Moldova citing pesticide use. Some call it “pure politics” with Putin punishing the two republics for pro-Western stands. Georgia has grappled with rampant fraud in Georgia (that I mentioned in October “Georgia on my mind“) so this latest blow will no doubt send the industry reeling.

“If I were your accountant, I would have to advise against investing in a restaurant,” Charles Grodin’s character quipped to Robert DeNiro’s in the 1988 movie Midnight Run (ironically De Niro has invested in many restaurants quite successfully through the Myriad Group). Paul Sullivan writes in Saturday’s Financial Times that “If you can stand the heat, buy the kitchen” when it comes to investing in a restaurant.

If you thought Thomas Jefferson was the most wine friendly of America’s founders, you’d be right. New evidence has revealed, however, that George Washington ordered a “box” of Muscat and claret while he was president. Only catch: he also ordered a keg of brandy and after leaving the presidency, he built one of the largest distilleries in Virginia. That ardent spirit…[MSNBC]

I’m not the only blogger on the move. The indefatigable Beau Jarvis at Basic Juice will be heading to Austria for a month in May. Alder Yarrow at Vinography just spent time poking around Mendoza too and has posted some of his thoughts and tasting notes. Taj continues her travels thorough America’s Western wine country and interviews many quirky producers, such as Casa Nuestra in Napa. Lenn Thompson won’t be traveling–he’ll be bringing the wines to him in his “50 wines 50 states 50 weeks” challenge on the group blog Wine Sediments. Whoa, I wonder what he’ll write up from Alaska?!?

tags: wine | wine news | Bordeaux 2005 | wine blogs | wine travel

I’m frustrated by the lack of a good wine map for Mendoza. But I guess that’s testimony to the “undiscovered” nature of the destination.

The one above shows the general lay of the land with the main growing areas of Maipu and Lujan de Cuyo moving out from the city of Mendoza (see this topo/satellite/weather map. Further south is the Uco Valley with many wonderful wineries and 200km south of the city lies San Rafael, home to Famiglia Bianchi among others. I didn’t visit San Rafael on my trip but I did visit the other regions.

There’s an incredible vitality to Mendoza. The region is experiencing a boom. Foreign direct investment, particularly from France and Chile, is pouring in to vineyards and fancy new wineries are going up everywhere. Several locals told me that unemployment is at 6 percent, well below the national average of 20 percent. Demand for luxury hotels is such that the Park Hyatt is often full and two other five-star hotels are being built. And there are luxury boutique hotels such as the 14-room Cavas Wine Lodge sprouting in the vineyards themselves.

The Andes provide a dramatic backdrop for the city as well as plenty of activities for tourists, from hiking to rafting. But it’s the wineries that I went for and I wondered, does terroir matter? Or put more simply, are there different microclimates in Mendoza?

It is always hard to decipher the influence of the vineyard as opposed to the influence of the winemaker. So I had an excellent chance to taste the terroir in the very cool tasting room at Alta Vista with three Malbecs from different vineyards made by the same winemaker. Patrick d’Aulan and family sold the Champagne house Piper-Heidsieck in 1999 and still owns Chateau Sansonnet in Bordeaux, purchased this winery in 1998 and started restoring it and acquiring properties. They now have four vineyard sites including 540 acres in the Clos de los Siete project in the Uco Valley area of Vista Flores (planted in 2002; the d’Aulans have since left the venture).

The other three vineyards are much smaller and run from south to north in Mendoza. La Consulta is a cool-climate, 17-acre vineyard south of even the Uco Valley at the base of the Andes; the Alto Agrelo vineyard is 225 acres an situated in Lujan de Cuyo; and the 17 acre La Consulta is the closest to the city of Mendoza and has a wide temperature fluctuation between high and low. They all lie at more or less the same altidue, about 3500 feet, and about 33 degrees south of the equator. The Alta Vista premium line of Malbec has a limited production of wine bottled from each vineyard site and they are only sold as a boxed set (about $50). While American consumers no doubt have difficulty distinguishing between the various subregions, Argentine laws on place names don’t provide much help since only generic geographic indications, such as Mendoza, are allowed much to the chagrin of many winemakers I met. Alta Vista overcame this problem by including the vineyard name as the brand name for the wine.

I tasted the wines in the order of the vineyards above and they were dscribed as ranging from “elegant and feminine,” to medium, to bold. Well, if the if the La Consulta one is feminine, the woman rides a Harley. While I liked the wine with its aromas of violets, it was still big and lush with a gorgeous mouthfeel. The third wine from Las Compuertas was perhaps more “manly” since on the finish was a rare dose of mouth chomping tannins.

My favorite wine was the middle of the road “Serenade” from Alto Agrelo. Inky purple in color, the attack draws you in with notes of plums, dark cherries, a faint whiff of asado, and lush, velvety mouthfeel. Although the wine sees some oak, it is harmoniously balanced with the fruit and the tannins are sweet.

All in all, the Alta Vista terroir experiment was very instructive and a very good overview of the different vineyard characterisics. It’s a pity it isn’t more widely available in the US–I guess you’ll have to go there to check it out for yourself.

Alta Vista: Alzaaga 3972, M5528AKJ, Chacras de Coria, Menodza, Argentina. Open for visits–check the Alta Vista web site for more info, vineyard maps and photos here. Also, see additional wine maps of Mendoza here.

tags: wine | Argentina | Mendoza | Terroir | Alta Vista | travel

Alta Vista Torrontes, Mendoza, 2004 $9 (find this wine)
The best white wine that I had on my recent trip to Argentina I had on the first day at Cabaña Las Lilas restaurant in the hip Puerto Madera area of Buenos Aires: Alta Vista Torrontes. And it kept popping up on the trip as I tasted it two more times (including at the winery with the 05) and loved it each time. “Aromatic” is a way that Torrontes frequently gets described but perfumed might be more accurate. White peach, honeysuckle blossom, perhaps even lychee conspire in an hugely rich and expressive aroma that is not for the faint of heart. The wine has crisp acidity and is totally dry (2g residual sugar) despite the vortex of aromas. While this wine is a little bit hard to find in the US, an able substitute is the Santa Julia Torrontes, which has wider availability (Whole Foods) can be found for as low as $6. Pair with Asian foods or try it as an aperitif. Either way, a torrent of flavor will be yours!

tags: wine | Argentina | Torrontes

I’ve started a photo set on flickr of my trip to Argentina. Check it out!

tags: wine | Argentina | photos