Seven new reasons to sample the fruits of this South American country's vines.
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Credit: Dominio Del Plata/Pachy Reynoso
Argentina ranges from the Andes to the Atlantic, from the subtropical north to the sub-Arctic south. Within its vast geography, as mid-19th-century European immigrants discovered, there are great places to grow grapes. But it wasn't until 2002, when producers began exporting in earnest, that the rest of us got to taste what Argentines had been drinking all along. Argentina now sends nearly 7 million cases of wine to the U.S. yearly, most of it just one varietal: malbec. Big, dark, and often affordable, malbec has appealed to wine drinkers used to rich California reds. In recent years, though, tastes have changed, and Argentine vintners are responding with new ways of making their wines. Here are seven categories of Argentine wine that you'll want to taste now.
1. The New Malbec
When Michel Aimé Pouget brought the malbec grape from Cahors to Argentina in 1853, winegrowers found that the
terroir there could also yield burly reds. Today, as tastes for high alcohol and tannins in wine diminish, Argentines are styling malbec in a more elegant, food-friendly fashion. A good strategy for finding softer, prettier malbecs is to seek out recent vintages. Most malbec is grown in Mendoza, Argentina's top wine-producing region, located in the central west, where last year's cold snaps slowed grapes' ripening, resulting in even, vivid wines that are delicious to drink now. The Recuerdo Malbec 2010 ($22) mixes zesty spice with flamboyant fruit, while Yauquen Malbec 2010 ($12) offers cherry, mineral, and sandalwood notes. Even in the 2009 and 2008 vintages, you can see more gentleness. Susana Balbo Signature Malbec 2008 ($25) delivers earth and funk and balanced acid. The bouquet on the Finca Altamira 2009 ($120) from the acclaimed Bodega Achaval Ferrer is lighter and merrier, with a hint of vanilla, while its velvety mouth shows plums, spice, and a long, powerful finish.
2. Bonarda
Malbec might be their big export, but bonarda is what Argentines drink at home. Not to be confused with the same-named grape from Italy's Piedmont, Argentine bonarda comes from the Savoie, in eastern France, where it is known as charbonneau. More delicate than malbec, it allows the character of the
terroir to shine through, picking up notes of farmyard and forest. Medium-bodied and rustic, it's an ideal wine to drink with lighter meats. Bodegas Nieto Senetiner excels at bonarda; their medium-bodied 2009 is full of beaujolais-like berries ($15), while the 2008 Limited Edition is meaty and suave ($34). From La Rioja north of Mendoza, the La Puerta Gran Reserva Bonarda 2007 ($35), with its hints of leather and minerals, proves that the grape can age a bit.
This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #143
"Malbec delivers a lot of drinking pleasure," says Hobbs, who today is a partner in Viña Cobos in Mendoza and consults for another 14 wineries throughout Argentina. "It does well with food, but because it's full-bodied and generous in nature, it tends to drink well all by itself." Hobbs describes Malbec's typical character as having flavors of boysenberry and blueberry, with supple or satiny tannins.
In the mid-1990s, wine exports from Argentina to the United States were nearly nonexistent. They grew to a small but respectable 1.3 million cases by 2002, according to Caucasia Wine Thinking, an Argentina-based company specializing in export data. That initial growth was fueled by international stalwarts such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot; Malbec represented just 15 percent of export volume in '02, or 200,000 cases, but its numbers soon began to skyrocket. In 2010, Argentina exported more than 4 million cases of Malbec to the United States, or 20 times the amount it sent north in 2002, representing 60 percent of its exports to the United States. The message was clear: Americans loved Malbec.
Source: Mendoza Holidays South American Wine Tours http://www.mendozaholidays.com