Good neighbor policy

O

Oswaldo Costa

Oswaldo Costa
When I moved back to Brazil four years ago I went on a futile hunt for suitable Chilean and Argentinean wine because neighbor country import tariffs are much lower. After two years, I basically gave up and resigned myself to lugging European wine back from New York, like some mule. But, being an open-minded fellow, every now and then I give the neighbors a try, especially when theyre recommended by like-minded folks, even if I still have to lug them back from New York.

2008 Clos Ouvert Huaso Maule 14.5%
100% Pas. Natural wine with Lapierre consultancy, annual Dive Bouteille participation, and Louis/Dressner imprimatur. Fragrant kirsch and raspberry jam overlaid with rubber and tar. Might have been reduced, because the tarmac sensation declined. Meaty texture, good acid/sweet balance, quite tannic. Reminiscent of Rhne Syrah. With Andean wine, experience has generally led me to suspect acidulation, but the acidity here appeared integrated enough to be endogenous. The alcohol gave it a peppery piquancy, pleasingly heat free. Overall, cant say that it gave me great pleasure, but this seems like a winery to watch, particularly given the structural difficulties (e.g., desert climate irrigation leads to lazy roots, fast maturations require super-maturation to avoid green tannins) that appear to make minimal intervention harder in the Andes.

2005 Carmelo Patti Malbec Lujan de Cujo 13.5%
Plum aroma with a metallic edge and some iodine. Ripe, but not egregiously. Medium tannins and some coffee in the mouth. Acidity adequate before food, but deficient in the face of fat. At least, this appears to have the merit of not having been acidulated. Became quite enjoyable when I stopped analyzing and just let it flow. Pleasant, and far better than the regular fare of bionic Malbec, but still not something Id seek out.

So, mixed feelings. Now back to Europe.
 
I had similar mixed feelings about the Carmelo Patti wines after visiting his joint a couple of years ago. The wines were well intended but were flirting around the edges of volatility and a little bit of offness. We tasted a number of different wines, some of which had been opened just then and others that had been open seemingly for a couple of days, so perhaps it's a house style.

For daily-drinking Chilean wines, you might have a look at the Gran Riservas from Casa Silva. Their farming is pretty pure and they care about which clones are planted in which vineyard. The complete Carmenre range is a pretty good bet, as is their Sauvignon Gris. Viognier from Lolol is worthy of exploration as well, although it's unlikely to banish Condrieu from your thoughts. Overall, their wines are much better than one would expect from a producer working at this scale of production.

-Eden (their Microterroir Carmenre is worth investigation, although it's not exactly bargain priced in comparison to what anyone's used to paying for Chilean wine these days)
 
Interesting, have you tasted them Casa Silvas recently? Maybe they have gone over to the ripe side, because the few that I tasted locally were high-alcohol, super-sweet poster boys for the coca-cola style.

Oswaldo (maybe they just send Brazil their dross, which would be merited, since the average consumer here is a swine, in the process of being weaned off a diet of scotch and gin tonics, and thinks Beaujolais is a sissy's wine).
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Interesting, have you tasted them Casa Silvas recently? Maybe they have gone over to the ripe side, because the few that I tasted locally were high-alcohol, super-sweet poster boys for the coca-cola style.
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Tasted them last week, but they were amid a sea of Napa Valley wines and may have come off as restrained only by comparison. Have you ever encountered wine from Polkura? Their focus is mainly Syrah and it's run by Sven Bruchfeld, an old acquaintance from the MW program. The wines aren't yet available here yet but they're distributed in Rio and Sao Paolo and from what I gather on the website, they're probably pretty decent and unspoofed. No big point scores either from the critics who like overblown Shiraz so Polkura is probably worth trying.

-Eden (still looking for the magic bullet wine from Chile - maybe Andre Ostertag's Pinot Noir project will do it for me)
 
I visited with Carmelo Patti in January. What a gentleman. Wines were clearly Old World, and were remarkably distinct from the endless swill of International-styled/gobs of fruit/oakbombs that I encountered almost everywhere else around Mendoza. Patti's were more leather than fruit. Not sure if oxidation is intentional, or whether the wines were just open too long. A bit too shrill for my tastes. But a great contrast to the homogenized wines being made throughout Mendoza.
 
Yes, definitely a relief compared to others, but perhaps his cult status owes something to the one-eyed king syndrome.

Eden, I checked out the Polkura site and located the Brazilian distributor, who only bring in one of the wines (the 2006 Syrah). Will receive a bottle on Monday for a test drive. The alcohol levels mentioned in the spec sheets (all ranging from 14.5 to 14.9%) are consistent with the habitual supermaturity that is supposedly required to avoid green tannins, so I'm curious to see how this fits/escapes the mold.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Good neighbor policyWhen I moved back to Brazil four years ago I went on a futile hunt for suitable Chilean and Argentinean wine because neighbor country import tariffs are much lower. After two years, I basically gave up and resigned myself to lugging European wine back from New York, like some mule.
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No love for the Sauvignon Blancs of Leyda or Casablanca Valleys?
 
originally posted by Asher:
I visited with Carmelo Patti in January. What a gentleman. Wines were clearly Old World, and were remarkably distinct from the endless swill of International-styled/gobs of fruit/oakbombs that I encountered almost everywhere else around Mendoza. Patti's were more leather than fruit. Not sure if oxidation is intentional, or whether the wines were just open too long. A bit too shrill for my tastes. But a great contrast to the homogenized wines being made throughout Mendoza.
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Well put. During our trip to Argentina last year we also went to visit Carmelo and it was a treat. Great man, doing everything by himself. The visit was really cool.
One of our discovery was the Domaine St Diego. Winemaker is Angel Mendoza and all the wines are really impressive and insanely cheap. Unfortunately they had no intentions of exporting their tiny production.

Regarding Chile, I remember trying the Casa Silva Carmenere which I thought was ok.
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
No love for the Sauvignon Blancs of Leyda or Casablanca Valleys?
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I've had a few pleasant ones (Gewurz too), some imitating Kiwi, some imitating French, none with any kind of local personality that I could discern. And my favorite Pinot so far was from Patagonia.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
No love for the Sauvignon Blancs of Leyda or Casablanca Valleys?
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I've had a few pleasant ones (Gewurz too), some imitating Kiwi, some imitating French, none with any kind of local personality that I could discern. And my favorite Pinot so far was from Patagonia.
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My experience has been different. While there is certainly variation, a number of the Sauvignon Blancs I've liked from that area do seem to have a common personality. To me they have the zesty fresh intensity of Marlborough SB without the vegetal tone, the "bones" of Loire SB without the austerity, plus a distinct limey, nearly floral fruit character. It's become one of my preferred regions for Sauvignon Blanc.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:

2008 Clos Ouvert Huaso Maule 14.5%
100% Pas. Natural wine with Lapierre consultancy, annual Dive Bouteille participation, and Louis/Dressner imprimatur.
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Well, it's not a mere consultancy. Young Pierre-Antoine Luyt studied viticulture and oenology in Beaune with Mathieu Lapierre, Marcel's son, and they became close friends. He's worked at Lapierre's and is in perfect harmony with Marcel's ideas - like part of the family. He was pretty heroic going back to Chile, which he'd discovered in the 90s, and starting to make red wines from the utterly despised pas grape (California's mission, Argentina's criolla chica and Spain's listn prieto), only used to make mean ross until then. He does it in the Lapierre, no-additives style, and I find it very good.

(French speakers will appreciate the subtle irony of the name, 'Clos Ouvert'...)
 
originally posted by VS:
... and starting to make red wines from the utterly despised pas grape (California's mission, Argentina's criolla chica and Spain's listn prieto), only used to make mean ross until then. He does it in the Lapierre, no-additives style, and I find it very good.
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It's funny, the Mission grape is looked down on here in CA too, but the few wines I have had from it are pleasant and nicely quaffable. Ditto for Alicante Bouschet, in a slightly coarser way. Certainly neither is at the Thompson's Seedless level of mediocrity.
 
I grow alicante bouschet in Manchuela, Christian, and it makes up about 40% of one of my wines - and I can assure you it's way, way above the mediocre level. On poor soils with low (or lowish - it's naturally productive) natural yields, it makes very interesting juice.
 
I still remember how offended Steve P was when I brought a Ridge alicante to Minetta Tavern.

I fear it was insufficiently glamorous. Victor, I hope your rehabilitation effort goes well
 
originally posted by VS:
I grow alicante bouschet in Manchuela, Christian, and it makes up about 40% of one of my wines - and I can assure you it's way, way above the mediocre level. On poor soils with low (or lowish - it's naturally productive) natural yields, it makes very interesting juice.
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My limited experiences with Alicante Bouschet back in the '70s were that it made Petite Sirah (aka Durif or Peloursin) look sleek and sophisticated by comparison. I'm not surprised that in the right hands it can make interesting wine, but how long do they take to come around?

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by VS:
I grow alicante bouschet in Manchuela, Christian, and it makes up about 40% of one of my wines - and I can assure you it's way, way above the mediocre level. On poor soils with low (or lowish - it's naturally productive) natural yields, it makes very interesting juice.
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My limited experiences with Alicante Bouschet back in the '70s were that it made Petite Sirah (aka Durif or Peloursin) look sleek and sophisticated by comparison. I'm not surprised that in the right hands it can make interesting wine, but how long do they take to come around?

Mark Lipton
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While historically regarded in California as a shipping or teinturier grape, my experience is that its bark (color) is worse than its bite (tannins). It can be vinified to express some quite jolly upfront fruit.
 
Indeed, no problem with huge tannins. After all, this is genetically 50% grenache and 25% aramon, and neither are particularly tannic. (I have no idea about the other 25%, the black ancestor: teinturier noir du Cher.) What it is is rather rustic and funky, but that has its charms too. Plus there's freshness in high-altitude alicante bouschet (or garnacha tintorera, as we call it). My friend Luis Jimnez and some Australians are making a 100% alicante bouschet in southern Manchuela (same place where our vineyard is; 3,200 feet high), Cien y Pico, that is pretty interesting. Several good ones from Portugal's Alentejo too.
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
Have you ever encountered wine from Polkura? Their focus is mainly Syrah and it's run by Sven Bruchfeld, an old acquaintance from the MW program. The wines aren't yet available here yet but they're distributed in Rio and Sao Paolo and from what I gather on the website, they're probably pretty decent and unspoofed. No big point scores either from the critics who like overblown Shiraz so Polkura is probably worth trying.
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So, last night we tried the 2006 Polkura Syrah and unfortunately it's in the very modern camp, though perhaps not as egregiously as some (see my new post).
 
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