Amanda Barnes

Tag: Wines

  • Top Argentine wines to try for 2015

    Top Argentine wines to try for 2015

    As we settle into a New Year and we get ready for the 2015 harvest over the coming months, there are many wines from last harvest or harvests previous only just coming to light. Here’s a rundown of five beautiful wines just making their way to the market


    Super Uco copySuper Uco, Fratello 2012

    The Michelini brothers are a tour-de-force in the Uco Valley, and this is their latest creation. Fratello – Italian for brothers – won’t be the same every year, but this sublime first year is anything to go by it will soon be a cult favourite. A super small production of Syrah with a touch of Malbec, this comes from a very special spot in Tupungato where the vines have been left to grow freely without any chemical treatment and the wine is a glorious success: texture, dark fruit, wonderful spice, and finesse. This will be one of the year’s most collectable wines – stock up now!

     

    Semillon copyNieto Senetiner, Semillon DOC 2014

    Since young winemaker Santiago Mayorga joined the team at Nieto Senetiner there has been a slight shift in the direction of this traditional wine producer focusing on more single-vineyard concepts. One of the results is this excellent value Semillon. Recently launched, this is the only DOC white wine in Argentina and uses a variety that used to be more widespread than Malbec. Although Semillon is still in decline in Argentina, this wine might make some change their mind about the overlooked variety: a floral, orchard-fruit nose with a rich mouth and good body. Super value at $100pesos.

     

    Cara Sur copyCara Sur, Criolla 2014

    Criolla was the first grape that Spanish settlers brought with them over 500 years ago, without any set classifications it is seen as table grape and completely underrated. While Criolla gets a lot of bad press here, this wine will certainly shake things up. Coming form a very unique vineyard in high altitude Calingasta Valley (in the San Juan district next to Mendoza), this is fabulously easy-to-drink that will change your ideas about Criolla. Fresh, fruity, and rather pretty – drink this chilled and make sure to order two bottles before the limited stock runs out!

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  • Top 5 wines from Patagonia

    Recently I’ve been down south exploring the gorgeous wilderness of Patagonia, which definitely needs to be on everyone’s bucket list. At the same time, I’ve been exploring the wine lists and cellars of various dining establishments and here are five fabulous wines to try.

    Chacra +55+1Bodega Chacra, Pinot Noir

    This boutique production winery makes a beautifully delicate Pinot Noir with nuanced flavors of cherry and earthy hints. The grapes come from older organic and biodynamic vineyards and the project is the brain child of Italian wine-royalty Piero Incisa della Rocchetta. Either try the Cincuenta y Cinco Pinot (from a 1955 vineyard), or the Trienta y Dos Pinot (yes, you guessed it – from a 1932 vineyard).

    Bodega Patritti, Pinot Noir Primogenito

    Patagonia is quite rightly the land of Pinot Noir and this Pinot is very nice for good for its appealing price point. Fruity, fresh and bold enough to stand up to yummy Patagonian lamb stone-oven pizza!

    Humberto -canale -1Humberto Canale, Old Vineyard Riesling

    One of the pioneers of Patagonian winemaking, Humberto Canale make many wines, however this Riesling is a real surprise. Made from older vineyards (from 1937) in Rio Negro is one of the very few single variety Rieslings you’ll find in Argentina. Abound with peach and citrus fruits and a nice oily mouth making it a good wine for the many varieties of shellfish you’ll find here.

    Bodega Fin del Mundo, Tannat FIN

    You expect to see Tannat more in Uruguay than Argentina, but this single variety is surprisingly supple for such a characterful grape. Intense and concentrated with 18 months in oak, from the winery at the ‘end of the world’ (fin del mundo).

    Saurus, Deseado Sparkling

    With dinosaur fossils discovered in their cellar, Saurus has a story but also has the good wines to back it up. This is a wine for the ladies (or for the men who can pull off pink shirts) as it is a slightly sweet sparkling Torrontes. Perfect for a winter apple crumble by a warm fire!

     

  • Argentina’s 10 Most Expensive Wines

    Argentina’s 10 Most Expensive Wines

    Written for Wine-Seacher, 8 Jan 2014

    You won’t see Argentina headlining wine auctions yet, but the world’s fifth-largest producer is beginning to make collectible wines. At this stage, buyers are more likely to have romantic reasons for embracing Argentina, though producers hope that wine investors may soon follow them into the market.

    “Most of our clients that spend over $80 a bottle have either visited Argentina and fallen in love with the country or are married to an Argentine,” says Christian Rothhardt, founder of specialist Argentine wine merchant Ruta 40 in London.

    Tapping into the tourist trade is an important factor in Argentina itself. The Vines of Mendoza tasting room in the historic city encourages visitors to taste wines from different producers, after which they can ship bottles home and subsequently send orders from the United States.

    “The average price of our wines sold [here] is $45,” says head sommelier Mariana Onofri. “Once they have been here and experienced the great wines, they are confident spending more on Argentine wine in the future.”

    That said, many of Argentina’s top wines are bought by affluent locals and wine-loving Brazilians on vacation. Visitors hunting out bargains are sometimes disillusioned to discover that the prices charged at the cellar door are higher than at home. Take, for example, one of Robert Parker’s top five producers in Argentina, Alta Vista. The 2007 vintage of its leading wine, Alto, sells at 600 pesos ($92) yet is listed on Wine-Searcher at an average price of $74 excl. tax. It’s not about ripping off tourists, either, as the same higher prices – and more – are charged in local wine stores and restaurants.

    So, why are Argentine wines sold more cheaply 5,000 miles away than they are in the place of production? The anomaly arises because of the parlous state of the Argentine peso. At the time of publication, the official rate was 6.5 pesos to the U.S. dollar, while the black market rate was 10.3. It’s the official rate that’s used in exports.

    Taking average worldwide prices as a barometer, here are the top 10 on Wine-Searcher’s list of Argentina’s Most Expensive Wines*. To be included, a wine must have been produced over five consecutive vintages and have a minimum of 20 different offers in our search engine.

    Paul Hobbs (R) in the vineyard with Vina Cobos's co-founders Luis Barraud and Andrea Marchiori

    © Viña Cobos | Paul Hobbs (R) in the vineyard with Vina Cobos’s co-founders Luis Barraud and Andrea Marchiori

    No. 1. Heading up the chart at $190 is Viña Cobos’s Nico Cabernet Sauvignon, now known as Volturno. It’s an odd man out in a country where malbec rules but cabernet sauvignon is the pet grape of American winemaker Paul Hobbs, who uses it as the dominant variety in his highest-level wine. Up to 37 percent malbec is blended in for good measure.

    “I think Argentina is the third-greatest region for cabernet in the world [after Bordeaux and Napa],” says Hobbs, who first came to Argentina to act as a consultant at Catena Zapata in 1989. He set up his own winery, Cobos, in 1997. “Hardly anybody knows about Argentina because it hasn’t paid much attention to cab itself, but now people are beginning to,” reports Hobbs.

    Why is this wine able to net such a high price? “With this vineyard you are drinking a part of history, but history alone does not do the job,” says the winemaker. “It is a world-class standard and you can age this for 50 years.” It probably helps that Hobbs has his own California-based wine importation business and has worked for some of the industry’s biggest names in wine. Oh, and this wine fairly consistently gets 98 Parker points.

    However, there’s potential for enormous confusion over its name. First released in 2005, early listings of the wine will show it as “Nico” – named after co-founder Andrea Marchiori’s father Don Nico, who was always “the first one out on the vineyard for the first pick.” Unfortunately for Hobbs, Laura Catena had launched her wine “Nico by Luca” three months earlier. After a couple of confusing years, Hobbs switched to using Don Nico’s middle name, Volturno.

    No. 2. Viña Cobos “Cobos” Malbec. Hobbs strikes again, this time with the first wine he made at Viña Cobos in 1999. Like Nico/Volturno, the wine spends 18 months in new oak and the grapes come from Hobbs’s 80-year-old vineyard in the Mendoza sub-region of Lujan de Cuyo.

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