This Is How It All Begins, Chapter Two

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Returning to the scene of the crime…

So a quick recap from our previous post… Janine Poleman from Elixir Wine Group and I, are in the cellar for a look at some of the newest wines to hit her portfolio, wines she hopes to bring this way for the holiday season, and go!

Always a woman with something up her sleeve, the La Mejorada Villalar Oro 2009, a little Spanish Tempranillo from the Castilla y Leon, light, lean and showing off tart hints of cherry fruit and black pepper, it gives way to some subtle hints of cedar and mineral before finishing up dry. This was pretty good, but we jumped back across the pond – metaphorically of course, for the wines of Bodegas Calle, a producer in the Argentinian region of Mendoza, a big state comparable to California with regards to wine, kind of where most of the action in Argentina’s wine production is.
Yet the meat of the presentation, the wines of Argentina’s Bodegas Calle.  My introduction to these wines came years ago, before they found their way into Elixir’s book (which was actually the transformation of the old Southern Wine Group – not to be confused with the wine and spirits distribution juggernaut, Southern Glazer’s).  Unfortunately the wines weren’t great, largely due to the wines being of backdated vintages, just old and tired as Hell.

Yet I digress.

This day’s presentation of the Calle wines were remarkable.  Beginning with the flagship, the El Olvidado Tempranillo 2013, a wine we currently have on the shelves at our Eastgate store, is a very different yet nonetheless delicious version of Tempranillo.  Really meaty, much fuller bodied than you’d expect, this hairy beast gives you all kinds of dark fruit and spice.  I almost get the sense this wine hopes one day to be paired up with a grilled steak dry rubbed with mesquite spices, or maybe that’s just what I want for dinner at this moment.

The El Necio Syrah 2013 and the La Mano Derecha Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 both do their varietals proud, and prove intense companions to the El Olvidado.  The Syrah is a sexy beast from Mendoza’s Agrelo region, with its head firmly in the notion of a Northern Rhone – brooding, dark with smoky meat and peppery red berry notes, kind of a pepper-crusted pork chop with a black cherry balsamic vinegar reduction  pureed and poured in a glass.  (I should probably eat before I write these things.)  The Cab is bold, full-bodied and showing notes of dark chocolate, black currant, plum and nutmeg.  The fruit hails from the Cruz de Piedra and Agrelo regions of Mendoza – get to know these little places so when you see them on a label, you’ll know the wines kick ass.

The Dharma Orangic Petit Verdot Blend 2013 is a very cool, very unique red blend consisting of Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec with a playful homage to the TV show “Lost” on the label, which is appropriate because there is a lingering nuance of the Smoke Monster in the glass, like the show’s villain was out picking blackberries and plums and forgot to wash up a bit – there is a mesquite underpinning that has me thinking BBQ (but in these parts, who doesn’t think about BBQ?).  This single-vineyard red from Mendoza’s venerable Lujan de Cuyo region is a fantastic value that will have you saying “California who?”

The Alberti 154 Malbec Reserva D.O.C. 2012 is kind of a big deal for Argentina, the D.O.C. part I mean.  While Italy’s version of the D.O.C. (and D.O.C.G.) rating denotes wines from an exceptional place (like Chianti Classico, Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino – you get the idea) Argentina’s D.O.C. recognizes a particular grape above all else, the Mendoza workhorse known as Malbec.  To be D.O.C. – which stands for Denominacion de Origen, or Denomination of Origin – the Malbec has to be considered extraordinary, and Lujan de Cuyo boasts the first D.O.C. Malbecs of the land (the only other part of Argentina is San Rafael).  The Alberti gives you a resounding shout to all the generic Malbec fans, “Come over here!  This wine is so much better than yours!”  Dense, lush and voluptuous from start to finish, the smoky blueberry, black cherry and plum notes are mixing it up with mocha and baking spices, tar, mesquite and mineral notes for a remarkable value that will satisfy all you red wine drinkers out there.
These are the kinds of wines to which I get really nerdy, not because of their obscurity factor, but because I know the audience is going to love them.  It is like being on stage at a bar in the South – you play Freebird, and the crowd is going to go crazy!
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The quest continues…