Wines in this episode:

2007 Luigi Bosca Reserva Pinot Noir – Corkd Reviews

2006 Lamadrid Malbec Reserva – Corkd Reviews

2006 Catena Alta Malbec – Corkd Reviews

Inconsistency… Oh “sigh…,” Argentina. So much potential, yet always able to sporadically disappoint (which you will see upon watching the episode, which includes three bad apples).

One of the primary reasons, Mir Global Marketing LLC heavily investigated and nurtured our collaborations down in Argentina. The country is home to perhaps one of the most conducive soils for producing wine, yet remains riddled with bureaucratic and inefficient institutions which impede it from truly flourishing.

“Chile has proven itself a producer of some of the finest Sauvignon, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Cabernet blends in the world,” writes Adam Lechmere of Decanter.com.

Other highlights from the event include:

• International Trophies for Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Bordeaux Varietals all went to Chile at a glittering dinner in the Floral Hall at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

• The trophy for best Sauvignon Blanc Over £10 went to Undurraga’s TH from San Antonio, which judges described as ‘Crisp, herbal, grassy and zesty, appealing elegant and expressive.’

• Cono Sur’s Riesling won the Under £10 in that category, for its Bio Bio Valley Reserva 2008, with its ‘racy nose of lime, honey, grapefuit and ripe peach with hints of mineral and kerosene’.

• And for the fourth time in the past five years the Red Single Varietal trophy Under £10 went to an Argentinian Malbec: this year, the Malbec aka Rodolfo Sadler from Opi Sadler in Mendoza.

Click here for a full list of awards, including international trophy winners

Click here to read more about Decanter’s World Wine Awards from Adam Lechmere’s article “Chile triumphs at Decanter World Wine Awards,”

[Source] – Decanter.com

Chile and Argentina are unarguably the regional leaders in wine production, with their wines now common place in international markets around the world. Nonetheless, it would be unwise to overlook the potential of other up and coming producers from other countries in Latin America.

Of the many countries that do produce wine in South America, Bolivia is one country Mir Global Marketing is largely ignorant about. I stumbled upon this interesting from the Global Post this afternoon about Bolivia’s burgeoning wine scene and I must say I’m intrigued.

Here is a small excerpt from the article, A hidden high-altitude treasure; Bolivia’s Tarija region produces great wines — it’s just hard to find them outside the country.

Even the French will admit that Chilean and Argentine vinos can be as good as they come. But Bolivian wine? Well, just wait. If you haven’t tried a fine merlot, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, malbec or sauvignon blanc from this small but expanding wine-producing area in southern Bolivia, you’re in for a tasty surprise.

Bolivians long have had a passion for their national drink, singani, a grape brandy distilled from muscatel grapes, but as recently as a decade ago, locals turned up their noses at their own wines, preferring to buy excellent and inexpensive ones from their southern neighbors.

Today, however, Tarija’s major winemakers — Kohlberg, La Concepcion, Aranjuez, and Campos de Solana — are supplying the national market and sending their wines abroad, especially to Europe. Their secret: altitude.

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Bolivia’s modern wine industry began some 40 years ago when Julio Kohlberg and others brought new varietals, mostly reds, to production. Nobody is really sure, but it is estimated that about 4,942 acres are under cultivation in the Tarija region. Producers began exporting about a decade ago but have been stifled by a lack of investment, marketing and stable access to markets.

Click here to access the complete article from the Global Post

This doesn’t mean it is as simple as pitching quality bottles of each of these types of wines to importers / distributors in China. For starters, Chinese by and large have never heard of Malbec and when it comes to white wines you are always fighting against the current because about 70% of the wine consumed in China is red.

Cabernet Sauvignon’s dry, deep tannin full tastes are seldom well received in China. Wine experts and sophisticated consumers do exist, but these consumers are not representative of the greater wine market.

When it comes to Chardonnay, a young wine which has not been aged in french oak and has a sweet almost fresh taste (which reminds me of Sauvignon Blanc) can work. However, finding a young Chardonnay which has these qualities is quite difficult. It is a great deal easier to find a Chardonnay from California that does have a drier, woody taste… sadly Chardonnay’s of this style (which are very popular in the US), are not what the unrefined Chinese wine palate seems to prefer

A friend of mine who is marketing French wines to China has also found Viognier to be quite conducive with the Chinese palate. The floral fruity aromas of a Viognier, attract the Chinese to the wine and when paired with food it goes superbly with spicy Asian cuisine such as Thai food.

Sauvignon Blanc’s fruity and vibrant aromas along with its crisp and refreshing taste seem to draw the Chinese wine drinker in. During last night’s networking event in Chicago, I was particularly intrigued by the overwhelming positive reaction of women who sampled Palmer Vineyard’s 2008 Sauvignon Blanc.

Palmer’s Sauvignon Blanc gives the wine drinker a refreshing and crisp experience. It is almost as if this particular wine has a subtle carbonated kick to it. Not strong enough to think you are drinking a wine spritzer, but just enough to give it a unique kick and not overcompensate other elements of the wine.

Moving onto Malbec’s, Argentina’s pride and joy. Many describe Malbec as a versatile red wine, and this is exactly what it is. Malbec in my mind, is almost a hybrid of characteristics commonly associated with other reds such as Merlot, Cabernet and Pinot Noir. Malbec’s which have been aged in french oak retain their berry, fruity substance while also balancing in a magical way with the dry and intense tannin’s typically associated with a full bodied red wine.

** Reminder to all readers, opinions expressed in this entry are my own and should be not treated as fact. Thank you.

~ Bennett Reiss – International Trade Consultant at Mir Global Marketing LLC

As producers in North America and Europe watch their grapes ripen, vintners in Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are preparing to sample their first bottles of 2009.

A healthy growing season is paramount in the process of ultimately producing a quality wine. This is of course why certain regions in the world excel in wine making. These regions are blessed with extremely conducive climates for growing grapes used in wine making. This is why regions like Mendoza, Argentina have historically been known to consistently produce high quality wines. Click here to read more about the region of Mendoza from Mir Global Marketing’s home page)

This article from the Winespectator.com provides links to the publications reports on how the 2009 grapes have turned out in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Argentina: Heat spike hurts Argentine white wines, but reds weather the warmth

Chile: A warm and dry year leads to ripe wines and slightly higher yields

South Africa: South Africa’s wine regions enjoy a cool, dry season, producing quality across the board

Australia: Yields are down in most regions, but a cool, dry season may have produced elegant reds

New Zealand: A moderate growing season bodes well for the country’s reds and whites

To access complete country harvest and grape reports from the Winespectator.com, please click on each respective country link

The first vestige of winemaking was brought to Argentina by Spanish conquistadors and missionaries who made their way from Mexico to the area in the latter part of the 16th and early 17th centuries. They brought native grape cuttings from their Spanish homeland including varieties not well known today like criolla, still grown in Argentina today, and the common mission grape currently grown in limited quantities in California.

New waves of European settlers came to Argentina in the early 1800s, bringing vine cuttings from Spain, Italy, and France. Among these cuttings was some malbec that now forms the backbone of the Argentine wine industry. Remarkably, these cuttings originated before the dreaded root loose, phylloxera, afflicted European vines. Most Argentine malbec is planted on original rootstock rather than grafted to disease resistant stock like most vines in other wine producing countries.

Malbec is one of five varietals allowed in the department of Bordeaux in France. It was virtually wiped out in this area by a killer frost in 1956, and it was not widely replanted. Some malbec is grown in California, but American varietal bottlings are rare. It is in Argentina this variety thrives.

Argentina produces and drinks a lot of wine. No wonder tango is the national dance. Argentina is the fifth largest wine producer in the world behind France, Italy, Spain and the United States.

Mendoza, Argentina

Only fairly recently have Argentine wines been significantly exported because the native populace drank most of the domestic wine produced. Tango apparently requires a lot of wine. As long as the populace was willing to drink copious amounts of poor quality wine, there was no need to contemplate exportation.

When years of political instability ended, the Argentine wine industry had been left behind. The industry set out to modernize like Chile, the neighbor to the west, who was exporting significantly improved quality wines primarily to the United States. Like Chile, Argentina’s producers adapted winemaking methods modernizing and producing wines in the New World style with the aid of advisors and investors from America and France.

The modernized industry started to focus on malbec. Malbec seems especially suited to the terroir. Although prone to disease in other areas, it’s not as susceptible to mildew and rot in Argentina perhaps because it is grown on some of the highest altitude vineyards in the world.

These high altitude vineyards exist in dessert-like conditions with long uninterrupted, dry sunny days. Irrigation is a necessity. In the past winegrowers allowed vineyards to flood. Today better producers use the Andes snowmelt ancient irrigation system more judiciously. They know to produce grapes of great flavor and intensity, yields must be kept low and vines must struggle.

New winemaking practices produce an entirely different malbec than that produced in Bordeaux and in Cahors in southwest of France. Some say malbec is like a weaker version of merlot. The ones I have tasted lately are not tame. They are generally big, easy drinking wines of firm structure.

Aside from drinking wine and dancing the tango, Argentineans eat copious amounts of meat, especially beef. They are known for their open-air spit barbeques called asados where steak, beef ribs, pork sausage and even chitterlings are grilled. Malbec is the perfect wine for the asado and for our traditional charcoal grilled steaks and summer barbeques. It is attractive in today’s economy because good malbec can be had at a reasonable price.

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Click here to access Pat Kettle’s full article from The Anniston Star

What really grabbed my attention was the last paragraph… During the past few years NYC’s restaurants and wine bars have increasingly been carrying more wine from Argentina.

Guillermo Garcia points out that the economic crisis has helped Argentine wine. This has been crucial in helping Argentina break the mold and get their wines onto tables, which would normally be occupied by a French, Italian or Californian bottle.

Due to climatic conditions, this year’s wine harvest in Argentina will be down 25% as compared to last year.

Mendoza, Argentina

According to Argentina’s National Wine Institute, hail in some provinces, and overall higher temperatures in February and March, are factors in the lower production output this year.

The lower production this year has occurred despite Argentina having a 12% increase in land under cultivation for wine grapes.

Guillermo Garcia, president of the National Wine Institute, said: ‘If there had not been an international crisis, we would not have been able to provide wine to countries with developed markets.’