Following 90 and over ratings for a number of Argentinian labels in the Wine Spectator, umbrella organization Wines of Argentina staged a tasting at Gaucho Restaurant at the O2 in London to spread the gospel.
In his April 26 column Wine: Stars of Argentina (The Independent, UK), Anthony Rose shows no love for a number of winners of these 90 plus ratings and blames it on "a certain American predilection for coca-cola sweetness, jam, oak
splinters and whopping alcohol levels in wine leaves me cold. I shudder
to think what these wines will look like in five to 10 years time when
their French high scoring counterparts will just be coming into their
own. Overreaching itself in every department, the ‘icon’ also overdoes
price ".
To be more specific he finds "that the depressing reality was that too many wines were caricatures. A wine
called Cobos made by the much-heralded California winemaker Paul Hobbs
had scored big points in The Wine Advocate. To my taste it was
overoaked, jammy, sweet and alcoholic: the antithesis of what elegant
malbec should be about. Drinkable with half a cow perhaps, another
travesty of fine Argentinian malbec was the wine of Cuvelier Los Andes
wines, with which the global superstar wine consultant, Michel Rolland,
is involved. The irony is that the Cuvelier family own Château
Léoville-Poyferré in Bordeaux, a model of stylish claret. Another,
Bodega Benegas Lynch, presumably linked to Pauillac’s Lynch Bages,
punched you in the mouth with its desiccating oak and tannins".
As you can see Anthony Rose does not mince words.
Have you tried any of these?
Do you disagree?
Should wines the world over be designed to please the American palate and in the end loose their uniqueness?
Related: Love Argentina and its Wines: ‘Vines of Mendoza’ combines local tourism info and online wine club
and Psst…psh malbec 05…the road from Bordeaux to Mendoza