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
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