Cafayate Valley

The second to last wine of the night that we tried, the 2006 Cafayate Valley Tannat was a great teaching device. A lot of the Brown Baggers did not understand what was meant by a chewy wine. After trying this wine made from Tannat grapes we all know. This deep purple red was a puckery, chewy beast. It seemed like something that British confectioners would take and turn into a wine jelly that they would sandwich between chocolate, biscuit and marshmallow.

It was definitely not a crowd pleaser. Although some gave it some props - my wife suggested that it could be served with a carne asada burrito and that the pairing might elevate the wine.

Now me saying that this was not a crowd pleaser does not mean I am unappreciative of the Brown Bagger who brought the wine. Hey, we have to try a range. And we're weeding through labels to find the gems. There's a lot of wines out there, and it's good to know what is a bargain and what ain't.

But I suppose that trashing a wine that someone has brought to a casual tasting like this could cause some hardships. If you do this with friends, please emphasize that judgements passed on a wine are not personal attacks.

Wine tastings like this should not be a competition. They're really just good excuses for people to get together and bullshit while at the same time discovering great wines to pursue and villainous wines to avoid.

Cafayate Valley get to work on your Tannat - it's a good enough grape just step up your game.

RATING: .5 screwcaps
LABEL: Cafayate Valley
GRAPE: Tannat
Price: $5.99

Gouguenheim

Gouguenheim was one of the real stand-out hits of the night. A spicy Malbec that Brown Bagger Mike Brand picked up at the Silver Lake Wine Store Gouguenheim was a real crowdpleaser. It was a Malbec whose spicy, peppery notes had rounded off some allowing some of the real darkfruit flavors to come out.

Again, like the other Malbecs, the Gouguenheim benefitted with food especially the dark chocolate which helped some of its subtleties out.

An interesting thing about this wine: its price. Brown Bagger Mike consistently picks up delicious wines for these events, and every time they cost 13 dollars with tax out the door. Mike goes in and talks to his friendly Silver Lake Wine store guy, says I need a delicious wine from "X" region for 12.99 or less. And guess what? He gets a wine for 12.99 - 13 bucks.

Now there is nothing wrong with this. Silver Lake Wine is a great wine shop with tons of bargains from wineries overlooked by the big buyers. In other words, it is a very well curated shop, but I doubt it will ever have anything for less than 10 bucks - which is the Brown Bag Holy Grail.

10 to 13 could very well just be a sweet spot for wines. With rising labor costs, fuel costs, and land costs, delicious wines under ten bucks might be a thing of the past like buggy whips and manual typewriters.

All that said Gouguenheim is a really satisfying wine and would be a great thing to bring to a friend's house who is cooking you dinner - especially when they're making red friendly foods. If you do pick up a bottle of it for such an occasion bring some dark chocolate or a blue cheese to help bring this wine's flavours out and show off what it can do.

We learned from our Argentina night that the Argentine wines benefit from a little pro-active wine drinking - ie., be smart what you pair it with.

RATING: 3 Screwcaps
LABEL: Gouguenheim
GRAPE: Malbec
PRICE: 12.99 - 13 bucks out the door at Silver Lake Wine

Durigutti

This spicy red made from bonarda grapes( which according to Wikipedia comes from Italian strains known in Italy as Dolce Nero - though not Dolcetto) was one of my big favorites of the night. People thought it was tight. One commenter called it thin, uptight, and peppery. But I felt that its dark fruit flavors of blackberry and cherry yielded a quick, modern tasting wine. How does one find modernity in a wine? Once at a restaurant in Boston called The Butcher Shop, my wife and I had an Austrian red( I think it was a zweigelt although I am not even sure since this was years ago and before I had even a hint of knowledge of wines). I loved the wine, but I had a hard time describing it. It didn't have flavors like a traditional European wine of terroir and funked up stone cellars, nor did it have the powerful, juicy pop of Californian wines. It was something else entirely - its own thing.

A modern tasting wine like this Durigutti then evokes late Summer nights in lower Manhattan, a street whose name you can no longer recall. Dim, tea candle-lit packed restaurants putting out blue cheese, spiky arugula, and hanger steaks with thin cut fries. That's what I taste when I taste a "modern wine," and I love it.

Now some in the group felt like its flavor didn't open up, but that's modern too. Like the well-dressed, too smart looking women in the above mentioned restaurants. It's not what you'd call open....

You have to be in the mood for that kind of crowd. Still for the $9.99 price tag, Durigutti is still a smart buy earning it 2 screw craps. I'd give it another .5

RATING: 2 Screwcaps ( 2.5 Screwcaps if this sounds like your kind of trip)
LABEL: Durigutti
GRAPE: Bonarda
PRICE: $9.99

Cruz Alta

IMG_8676
Originally uploaded by Chocolate And Steel (Christine)

The Cruz Alta was the last wine of the night, and we all agreed that this was a delicious, well balanced wine. In stark contrast to the peppery Malbecs, this Cabernet Sauvignon had smooth, ripe fruit back flavors. We all agreed that this was the one wine of the night that could be easily enjoyed without food. The other wines, as solid as they were, really benefited when combined with food be it meats or cheeses or dark chocolates - anything to smooth out the spiciness and bring out the subtleties. This wine had its full flavors more evident.

It was at the Brown Bag Sommelier price ceiling - 12.99. The BBS member found it at Whole Foods. I'd say she did well.

I have always found Whole Foods a difficult place to buy wine. They have some good selections, however, like everything else in the store - their wines tend to be overpriced. Worse than that, I have found that their staff in the wine section consistently tries to up-sell me. That is when I tell them what kind of wine I am looking for, they have time and again directed me to wines in the 16 to 20 dollar range. It could be because their lower priced wines are poorly curated for the most part with poorly structured flavors that never open up. Then again I have never been incredibly impressed with the wines that they have managed to up-sell me on.

This is not to say that you cannot find a solid, moderately priced wine in Whole Foods or any other supermarket for that matter. This Cruz Alta is proof of that. Super market chains, however, seem unable or unwilling to either find or choose wines in the 12.99 and under range.

The long and short of it: The Brown Baggers loved this wine.

RATING: 3 Screwcaps
LABEL: Cruz Alta
GRAPE: Cabernet Sauvignon
PRICE: $12.99

Pascual Toso

Pasqual Toso
Originally uploaded by david.gregg

The second wine we put the screw caps to was a Malbec from Pascual Toso. This was a wine that had no real nose to it. Not that that is an entirely bad thing. Though it was high in alcohol, it didn't have that boozy smell that some powerful California reds pack.

A Malbec loaded with pepper, this is a spicy wine which some in the group found off-putting.

Filled with hints of dark fruits like blackberries and cherries as well as fresh currants, this is a dry, fruit back wine with a quick finish. This wine could cut right through the richness of a big, juicy hamburger.

I can recommend this wine at the price I bought it for: $9.99 with an even stronger buy order if you see it on sale for $7.99.

RATING: 2 Screwcaps( out of 5)
LABEL: Pascual Toso
GRAPE: Malbec
PRICE: $9.99

Crios Torrentes

The first wine we tasted was a Crios Torrentes by the Argentinian winemaker Susana Balbo. Made from the popular Argentinian white wine grape torrentes, this wine had a great nose with notes of citrus and straw. With a good acidity and quick finish, we thought this was a crisp, capable white wine.

It was a clean wine with a good color. This wine would go well with seafood, most especially shellfish. But you could also have it as an aperitif.

As a general note for the Brown Bag Sommelier, we rate wines based on their nose, balance, and finish as well as for price. The Crios was our most expensive wine of the night coming in at 12.99. The Holy Grail for this website is finding an awesome tasting wine for 5 bucks.

Despite the fact that its price was at our ceiling, it was strong in all of its categories and at its price a good value.

RATING: 2.5 Screwcaps (out of 5)
LABEL: Crios
GRAPE: Torrentes
PRICE: 12.99

Best Served with....

Just a quick post. In the coming days, I'll start listing the wines we tried and rated from Argentina. One of the things I'll reference is common: what would go great with this wine? What is best served with this wine?

All wine is best served with friends. One of the problems I have with the fetishizing of wine as has happened in the United States is that the emphasis has been so put into the wine. So much power has been placed into the bottle, that the djinni overpowers what it is meant to serve.

Wine is a drink in celebration of social gatherings whether family weeknight dinners, wine and cheese served at sunset, or big blowout dinners for extremely special occasions. Wine is meant to be served with and in the service of friends and friendship.

If you have ever felt weird tasting wine from a bottle that you've ordered in a restaurant, or have been unsure about what bottle to pick up for a dinner party, or if you have felt burned by the $20 bottle you did buy for that party, then this blog is designed to help.

Greatness can be found at all levels of price and variety. Greatness that is best served with friends.