Just got back from three days in Buenos Aires, which I hadn’t visited in 20 years. A beautiful Francophile city that has seen better days, but is still very charismatic. I got to meet Alejandro Audisio and visit his impressive shop, Terroir, where I picked up a few bottles, including some Argentine dessert wines, hard to find outside the country. I also visited some restaurants and tasted some local wine, both “old style” and “new style.”
To explain the reference to “old style”: a colleague from a Brazilian message board wrote last year about going to a tasting held by several “modern” Argentine wineries. He was talking to one of the winemakers, and when he mentioned how much he liked the style of wines made by Weinert, the winemaker looked at him with a mixture of irritation and disdain and said:
"But Weinert is the old Argentine wine. Nobody makes that anymore!"
Regardless of how true the latter claim may or may not be, I was curious to try this “old” style of Argentine wine, usually a Bordeaux-like blend of cabernet, merlot and malbec with lower alcohol and less extraction. Since it is definitely out of fashion, my curiosity was inexpensive to satisfy.
Most of my notes were very cursory, I was more into enjoying the ride than being a geek:
On the way down, on the airplane:
2007 Graffigna Cabernet Sauvignon
Nose: chocolate, oak vanilla
Mouth: medium body, spicy, green cherry, blackberry, bitter finish
Not impressive, even on an airplane, with no choice.
2007 Graffigna Pinot Grigio
N: lychee, peach
M: light body, balanced
Not egregious, in fact acceptable. As a note on globalization, I was drinking wine made from an Italian grape by an Argentine winery belonging to a French parent while flying on an American airplane operated by TAM Brazilian airways with a ticket bought from LAN Chile.
Dinner Friday night was at Grappa, a chic pizzeria in Palermo Soho. Wine was the 2006 Felipe Rutini Cabernet Malbec. Smooth, balanced, tasty fruit, good acidity.
Lunch on Saturday was at Cluny, a well-regarded restaurant, also in Palermo Soho.
With ojo de bife, I had:
2004 Ruca Malen Malbec
N: chocolate, vanilla
M: good acid/fruit, good mouth feel (body)
Pleasurable, and good varietal tipicity. Will try this winery again.
Also with ojo de bife, Marcia had:
2003 Escorihuela Gascón Syrah
N: herbaceous, thyme, oak, wet dishrag
M: light to medium body, pepper, fish oil
Didn’t like this at all.
Dinner on Saturday was preceded by drinks at a friend’s house, where we drank:
Escorihuela Gascón Cabernet Sauvignon (year not noted)
Like syrah, peppery
Weird, this tasted very much like the syrah Marcia had at lunch, and was equally unappetizing. This winery does not appear promising, based on this tiny sample.
Dinner itself was at a wonderful hole-in-the-wall in San Telmo called La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar. The owner is a fan of Ferran Adrià and two of the dishes had foam, but everything on the multi-course tasting menu was creative and delicious and the service was warm and attentive.
Wines were:
2007 Colomé Torrontés Salta
N: knockout floral nose with lychee and peach, reminiscent of gewurz
M: confirms nose but, disappointingly, there’s not enough acidity, so falls flat
2007 Finca Domingo Hermans Torrontés Cafayate Salta
N: also lovely nose of lychee, peach, with an extra citric note
M: happily this has good acidity and, therefore, good acid/fruit balance
Though the second Torrontés was more satisfying than the first, in the end both were too obvious; I was reminded of how some people don’t like gewurz for this reason, though the spicyness in gewurz adds a layer that was missing here.
2005 Benegas Syrah
Dark inky purple.
N: kirsch, sundried tomatoes, olives, vanilla
M: tar, bitter finish, tapenade, pepper, medium body, too hot
Competent wine, reminiscent of some southern Rhônes, but not my style, thanks in part to the strong tapenade quotient (to my considerable gourmet-chagrin, I don’t like olives). Marcia thinks not enough acidity; if so, this is masked by the tapenade bitterness.
2007 Terrazas de los Andes Malbec
Dark inky purple.
N: subdued, plum and vanilla
M: very agreeable cherry fruit, with chocolate and good acidity. Very pleasant wine, without complexity or distinction, but delivers simple pleasures with aplomb.
At the end, an interesting round of dessert wines:
1) 2006 Weinert Sauvignon Blanc Late Harvest
Lovely smell of honey and peach but lacks body
2) 2006 Quará Torrontés Late Harvest
Gewurzy floral nose with honey, but bitter
3) 2007 Las Perdices Malbec Tardio “Ice Wine”
Nice but too sweet for the acidity
4) 2003 Pulenta Tardio XIV (not sure I wrote this down correctly)
Made from cabernet franc. Port-like, too sweet.
5) 2007 Tapiz Malbec Tardío
My favorite, port-like but light on its feet
6) Familia Zuccardi Malbec Maldonado
Port-like, chocolate liqueur, good.
All-in-all, a Falstaffian experience.
Lunch on Sunday after a disappointing walk around the San Telmo antiques market was at the well-known steak house Cabaña Las Lilas.
With ojo de bife, wine was my first “old style” Argentine:
1998 Bodegas Lopez Montchenot Gran Reserva (Cabernet/Merlot/Malbec) 12.5% 375ml
Bordeaux ruby red with light bricking at the edges
N: saddle leather, cedar, cassis
M: soft, balanced, cherry, spice, good acidity, integrated alcohol; refined, but got a little tired towards the end; interesting wine, old world, but neither Bordeaux nor Malbec. This is an expensive restaurant, but this half bottle was 40 pesos, or US$13. Absurdly inexpensive for a wine of this quality and age.
Dinner on Sunday was at Fervor, a steak and fish restaurant in Recoleta.
Wine was my second “old style”:
1992 Bodegas Lopez Montchenot 15 Años Gran Reserva (Cabernet/Merlot/Malbec)
Pale ruby with bricking at the edges
N: cedar, floral, delicate
M: cherry, old Bordeaux mouth feel, light to medium body, nice claret, holding on beautifully
Again, 185 pesos (US$60) is a bargain for a wine this old and classy at a relatively expensive restaurant.
After this we had a “modern” Argentine malbec, quite a contrast:
2005 Cinco Tierras Malbec
N: violets, plums
M: chocolate, pepper, oak, too hot
Not bad, but crass compared to the Montchenot (an unfair comparison, since this was a young entry level malbec strapling coming after a mature top of the line blended aristocrat).
With lunch on Monday, before heading for the airport:
2005 Palo Alto Coiron Malbec
Simple, spicy, juicy, good body, good balance, varietally correct.
At the airport, I was disappointed to find that prices at the duty free shop, while lower than in Buenos Aires, are still expensive, and inexplicably higher than in the São Paulo airport duty free shop (not to mention way higher than in the US). When I asked a salesman why this was so, he replied that prices in the duty free shop are set by the wineries themselves. Next time I go to Argentina, I’ll go to Mendoza, but the best place to buy Argentine wine (though without the fabulous selection found in Alejandro’s shop) is still the US.