Wine tasting in Boston - Chile & Argentina

The weather gets pretty cold in Boston.

So a bunch of HBS guys decided it would be a good idea to get warmer buy trying out a few wines from South America during a small wine tasting session.

Now to tell you the truth, I'm not a big drinker of South American wines.

Not that I don't enjoy them - usually their powerful berry flavors are rather ravishing - but it's just not easy to find good quality yet affordable prices for these wines in France.

I don't know if this is French wine retailers' sly way to promote French wines by only offering the worst new world wines they can get their hands on. I know for a fact that there are great South American wines. Some are probably among the best wines on earth (like the beautiful Bodega Noemia de Patagonia) but a fact remains that cannot be ignored : each time I've tried a South American wine in France, it's been

- Either completely bland

- Or a woody vanilla syrup

But I'm not risk adverse. And I'm not (totally) chauvinistic. So I decided I would give it a try. Again. And this time from a wine cellar in the US. To try to get rid of my bad luck.

So I went to the Cambridge's liquor store with my boyfriend (I definitely don't recommend it : the store's salesman is a mute Nintendo addict who quite evidently hates his job almost more than he hates every single customer that dares to disturb his peaceful nap).

There, we tried to find 4 bottles of South American wines for our little wine tasting.

I know I'm being a little hard on this liquor store ; I apologize. It has its assets too. For instance, the choice of wines is so poor that it never takes more than 10mn to get what your looking for. There were 6 South American wines. 4 came from the same winery.

So the choice came pretty easily really.

Here's what we got :

- Kaiken, Malbec, 2005 (Argentina)

- Apaltagua Grial Carmenere 2003 (Chile)

- Apaltagua Reserve, 2007, Cabernet Sauvinon (Chile)

- Apaltagua Carmenere Envero, 2007 (Chile)

1. We started out with the Apaltagua Carmenere (a typical Chile grape that used to be cultivated in the Bordeaux Region in the 18th century) :

Made from 100% Carmenère grapes, this wine shows a rather poor nose. Some berry fruit, plum and a little black pepper. The mouth is not much better, berryish fruit on the palate, moderate length and intensity.

2. Second was the Apaltagua Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon :

The nose exhales ripe berry notes, not too strong though, and some tobacco hints. The mouth is fairly supple and rounded yet a little greasy on the end. The length is moderate.

3. Third we tasted the Malbec from Kaiken :

After the disappointment of the first two wines we were expecting explosive fruits and chewy tannins from the Malbec. Once again, the disappointment was great...

The nose : ripe blueberry or huckleberry, hints of soil. The mouth displays intensity, with strong tannins; and a rather long finish.

4. Last but not least we kept the best for the end : Apaltagua Grial Carmenere 2003

Grial is supposed to be among the very best Carmeneres produced today. Extreme measures are taken in fruit selection and the price range of this wine (45 $ was significantly higher than the other' which revolved around 15$). So I was fairly excited to try it out.

Nose : ripe black current, mushroom, vanilla and woodiness. The mouth had a decent length with strong tannins that hint at a reasonably long cellaring capacity.

The result was significantly better than for the others yet we all agreed to say it was overpriced considering it's value.

Overall the wines were rather bland and weak but the evening was still great thanks to the cheerful company of the French association of Harvard Business School. Thanks guys !

I'm not going to let this semi failure bring my spirits down though. I know there are plenty of great South American wines out there, that are just craving to be tasted. I just need to find them. It's a little like finding your size on a 50% off jeans at Macy's on the last day of sales. It's pretty rare and it certainly isn't easy, but it happens. You just have to continue looking.

And I truly believe wine is about trying out as much products as you can.

So I guess I'm just going to have to organize another wine tasting focused on South American wines some time soon. What a shame ! ;-)