Mendoza: Adventures in Argentina Wine Country

Hola! He regresado de Argentina, y tengo mucho que decir sobre los vinos! Not sure if that's 100% perfect, but at least I can say my Spanish got a lot of practice, as did my palate! We tasted so many wines, I can't really begin to go into detail about them all. Instead, I'm going to summarize what I discovered about Argentine winemaking vs. Napa.

Everybody knows Mendoza is Malbec country. And i was definitely not let down! Most of the wineries have multiple lines of wines (a "clasico," "reserva," and maybe an ultra premium). These lines are sometimes distinguished by grapes used (from 1 farm, or finca, vs another), but mostly are defined by the oak used (or not).

Most of the cheapest wines did not use oak. I liked this idea in whites (especially Chardonnay...I'm over oaky chards!), but not in reds. Reds really do benefit from oak influence. That being said, the results are still very different. I tried Malbecs that were medium bodied, tight, slightly spicy, with notes of cherry and hickory, and others that were full bodied, really jammy and rich, smooth over the palate, with more succinct and barely tannic finishes. Personally, i preferred the latter. We get a lot of big tannic cabs from Napa, and i appreciated the juicy mouthfeel of the rich but smooth malbecs, although i will note that the brighter malbecs paired pretty well with rich beef empanadas.

I wasn't surprised to find a great range of delicious malbecs, but i WAS surprised to find one great pinot grigio and one great pinot noir! The Pinot Grigio was from Casnati Winery. It was light to medium bodied, had a lot of great fruits on the palate and a nice crisp finish. it was not watery at all (which is what i often, and admittedly unnecessarily assume with pinot grigio).

The Pinot Noir was from Palo Alto Winery, but apparently some other winery "stole" the name from them and patented it, so their higher end line (to which the Pinot Noir belongs) is now called "Amadores." I don't know if it's just because I haven't had pinot in a while, or because I had really low expectations, but their Pinot Noir was really great! Lots of barnyard on the nose, and it was smooth, well rounded, and medium bodied on the palate. I heard the pinots from Patagonia are really great, but I only tried this one in Mendoza (which was also great), so I'm really excited to see what comes out of Patagonia!

Argentina is a huge country with very different appellations, so I'm excited to see all the great wines that continue to emerge from there!