Wine

Malbec Rising

The Wine Is a Fine Reason to Tour Argentina

    Argentina is a great country to visit if you like wine, especially if you’re on a budget, because, as I discovered on my recent trip, the U.S. dollar is still strong down there. Grapes are predominantly grown in three regions: Mendoza, up against the Andes mountains at 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level, produces hearty red wines, most famously Malbec (an old Bordeaux variety) and Malbec blends but also some great Cabernet Sauvignons; Salta, to the north, is one of the world’s highest-elevation grape-producing areas, with vineyards up to 8,000 feet, primarily producing Torrentes, a beautiful, aromatic light-bodied white wine, as well as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay; and Patagonia, a region of beautiful rolling hills and mountains further south, is a cool region that produces whites and some aspiring Pinot Noirs.
    Argentineans consume 90 percent of the wine produced in their country, including an incredible amount of sparkling wine, probably facilitated by a tremendous number of holidays and celebrations. Increasingly, however, we see these wines exported to the United States and the rest of the world. This can be attributed to the huge influx of European and California interests building drop-dead gorgeous state-of-the-art production plants in Argentina and putting out very nice but high-priced wines that Argentinean wine consumers tend to avoid.
    Interestingly, no one is interested in putting in good roads to get to their beautiful wineries, so a typical visit involves dodging potholes and ruts and emerging upon something that looks like the Taj Mahal. The Argentineans are also not real fond of street signs or winery signs, so it’s hard to tell which rundown road to take.
    The solution was to hire a car with a driver who knows the region and speaks the language well. In some cases, we got guides who were fluent in both English and Spanish. This was relatively inexpensive, and the only downside was that the cars were often in a state of advanced disrepair, with tires worn semi-bald by all the gravel. At one winery we wound up with a flat tire and no spare. However, our resourceful driver was able to borrow a spare from another driver, and fortunately we didn’t get a second flat tire on the way home.
    We spent most of our time in the irrigated high-desert area of Mendoza, where the greatest number of wineries are located. Although it has a population of approximately 1 million, the old city of Mendoza has a small-town feel. On our first night there, we were invited to dinner at a very small bodega (winery) whose owner makes only about 300 cases of wine a year, just for his restaurant. An avid hunter and gardener, he greeted us and gave us a tour of the gardens and winery. In a beautiful cellar under the winery, we dined on estate-grown fruits and vegetables, handmade sausages and as much of the owner’s wine as we wanted. Dinner was followed by brandy and cigars in the garden. We passed on the cigars.
    Probably the most beautiful area we visited was the Uco Valley, which snuggles right up to the Plata range of the Andes southwest of Mendoza. A wonderful little town called Tupengato serves as the gateway to some stupendous vineyards and wineries. In Lunlunta, we found a great small winery called Domaine St. Diego,  whose reserve Malbec we thought was the best in all of Argentina. Coincidentally, the owner/winemaker had worked in California and had saved an empty bottle of his favorite wine—a 2001 Rosenblum Cellars Harris Kratka Zinfandel. If you’re interested in trying some great Malbec, e-mail natidelamota@yahoo.com.
    We talked with many growers about planting Zinfandel grapes. We’re interested in how a Zinfandel-Malbec blend would fare, and of course it would be a good reason to go back and visit this fantastic region. In fact, in 2009 we will probably be co-leading a tour with Peter Smith of Avalon Tours; he specializes in wine tours of France, Italy, South Africa, South America and Australia, and can be reached at (888) 499- 9463 or www.avalon-tours.com. 

—By Kent Rosenblum