Value Alert: 2007 Altos Las Hormigas Malbec

This is a cross-post from The Wellesley Wine Press. This wine received 89 points from The Wine Advocate.

Whenever a wine publication produces a list of wines that includes "top" wines -and- "value" wines, I always look for the value wine that sneaks into the list of top wines in spite of its lower price. This week's WWP Value Alert highlights one of those wines, the 2007 Altos Los Hormigas Malbec from Argentina.

I first heard of this wine from a piece in the Wall Street Journal. They tasted Malbecs ranging from $10 to $25 and this Altos Las Hormigas (at $10.99) was their favorite irrespective of price. Wine Spectator also thought highly of this one, rating it 87 points.

I had a bottle of this recently and was really pleased with it- absolutely delicious:

2007 Altos Las Hormigas Malbec - Argentina, Mendoza (2/28/2009)
Wow! Very nice. 91 the first night, 88 the second. Very impressive QPR here- will buy again. (90 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Where to find it:

• Hingham Wine Merchant in Hingham, MA
  
• Blanchards in West Roxbury, MA
• Winestone in Brookline, MA
• Others? Leave a comment below and I'll add it to the list.

If Malbec is not your thing, you might be interested in this 92-point, $12 Italian red. Willing to spend a little more? Perhaps this 93-point, sub-$20 California Zinfandel would be interesting to you. If you prefer white wines, then maybe this excellent $10 domestic Riesling would hit the spot.

Do you like hearing about incredible quality-to-price ratio wines like these? If so, please consider subscribing to the Wellesley Wine Press so you'll never miss an update.

Question of the Day: Have you tried this one? If so, what did you think? If not, what are some of your favorite Aregentinian Malbecs?

Everyone is crazy on Argentina

I have been ITCHING to review a wine on the Wine Post that was 89 points for this blog. I was asked so many months ago if I wanted to contribute and I said YES PLEASE. And then sat on my hands for forever. But now... away we go!

It really is incredible how the everyday drinker latches onto a grape. In the US, Merlot had a good run (with plenty still on the shelves) and gave way to Pinot Noir after Sideways knocked over a few bottles. Now the grape of the moment: Malbec!

Even though I think this is a fad that will one day be replaced by another fad (although it may stick around… when are people going to leave White Zinfandel and Chardonnay?), there is one major difference: Malbec from Argentina is damn tasty.

There is a lot of wine flooding in from Argentina these days. In fact, Argentina is now the fourth largest importer of wine into the US, behind Italy, Australia, and France. However, more than half of that wine is bulk wine.

What is bulk wine? Let’s think about how wine in brought into the U.S. for a moment. When shipping overseas, most producers put their wines on very large tankers. They have to bottle the wines, put the appropriate labels on them (do not get me started on labeling laws), put them in boxes, and then deliver them to the appropriate port where a ship will take the wines on board and drop them off in a port in the U.S. where customs the opens the boxes and looks to make sure all importing laws are being upheld.

Have you ever lifted a box of wine? It is heavy, which adds cost in the shipping. Well, what if you decide to simply put all the wine into large plastic containers and bottle the wine wherever you decide to send it. That would save money on shipping and you can bring more wine in at the same time. The problem is that the wines almost never have the interest and the life that a bottled wine has. You can find bulk wine from every country, especially right now when producers are doing everything they can to keep prices down.

But, I digress. We are talking about the good stuff here and there is not much better than the Bodegas Salentein Reserve Malbec 2006 from the Uco Valley in Mendoza, Argentina. This wine was very good, with a beautiful deep velvety purple color. There was a very nice vibrant freshness in the wine when I stuck my nose in the glass, accented by ripe red fruits. The vibrancy continued in my mouth where I found some cherry, black raspberry and cranberry flavors. Towards the end of the finish there was some nice spicy richness to it.

I looked up what the experts said, and I found that Jay Miller at the Wine Advocate gave this wine an 89. Finally, a wine I can post on the 89 project! Michael Schachner at the Wine Enthusiast gave this wine a 90. Wine Spectator gave this wine a 75. I was confused because I did not think the wine publications posted anything that was given less than an 85. When I saw the notes it looked like the Wine Spectator received a few bad bottles when they were doing their review. A real shame, because I think this is a great wine. On wine-searcher.com I found this wine between $17 and $22.

Crios de Susana Balbo Rose of Malbec 2007

From 2 Days per Bottle.

89 Points, Jay Miller/eRobertParker.com #174, Dec 2007.



Mendoza, Argentina
13.8% alcohol

As the little wooden guy is pointing out, this came with a screw-top. He didn't mind. he really liked this wine.

From the bottlenotes:

Wines under my Crios (offspring) label display ripe fruit flavors, excellent balance, and are meant to be enjoyed in their vibrant youth. This rose is produced using the traditional "saignee" method, a blending of the lightly - colored juice from the skins of my fermenting old-vine Malbec grapes at just the right time to generate a brilliant red color. Old-vine Malbec grapes create a richer, spicier wine than most other roses from around the world, wich gives the wine memorable flexibility to pair with a wide fange of foods. And like my own crios, this Rose of Malbec is extremely lovable and fun to be around.

The color was bright translucent pink, the color of cranapple juice.

The nose was sweet, strawberry, candied cherries and some spic, maybe cloves and ginger. It was full-bodied, a true child of the juice and the skins, rather than just the juice, with the skins in the role of a distant uncle. The palate opened with sweet fruit, strawberry and cherries, but a firm midpalate of smoke, cloves and ginger said this was a serious wine. Then it got playful again, ending in candied fruit and ginger, like a fresh holiday fruit cake.

SECOND NIGHT

Close your eyes and take a sniff- is that a glass of wine or am I in a room full of strawberries? Nope, not just strawberries, there are some Ruby Red graefruit here, too, and cinammon.

Sip it. Strawberries first, just like the nose, a touch of cocoa powder that reminds you it comes from malbec grapes, then the same Ruby Red grapefruit and cinammon from the nose. Some of the cherries from night one join for the finish.

This is a good rose. It is bright, acidic, fresh, and even just slightly tannic. This is a rose that reminds you it really does come from a red grape, not just a tinted white.