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 After receiving each guest personally in his living room, His Excellency Mr. Raúl I. Guastavino, the Ambassador of Argentina in Delhi welcomed all the invitees warmly to the Malbec World Day being celebrated with two Malbec brands already available in India- 2 labels of Trapiche (imported by Sula) and 2 Norton (importer-Brindco) and 6 other wines currently not being imported into India.
The ambassador and his charming wife were gracious and affectionate going to great length to make the evening enjoyable and memorable. ‘I would have liked to invite a lot more number of people but we were limited with space. Next time we will have a bigger affair and invite more people, he told me when I had met him earlier to discuss his plans for the evening which saw delicious Indian finger foods organised from Veda Cafe-each item was prepared in situ and offering a great opportunity for the guests to match wine with Indian food. As expected, it matched very well, whether it was the bite-sized keema- stuffed naan or the street-food chaat which had been smartly tweaked to match with different wines.
While there were animated discussions between guests of which ones to taste or which wines they liked the best individually, there seemed to be a consensus that the wines were very drinkable and they would love to repeat them in future. Even the vegetarians like the famous vegetarian half of the Rocky-Mayur duo of the famous TV serial ‘Highway on the Plate’ was pleased with the wines. ‘I am not much of a connoisseur but I can tell if I like the wines with my food and I can tell you these wines are delicious.’ Some of the restaurateurs and a couple of importers were keen on looking at the new wines to add to their portfolio.
Argentine wines have been finding more demand in the Indian market because of the soft and supple tannins, fruity flavours with slightly sweet underlying notes and some of them having spicy shades in the flavours besides berries. I found even chocolate and coffee flavours in 2 of the 10 wines available for tasting.
Malbec World Day
Malbec is a French grape variety which originated from the Cahors region in South West France, known as Cot. It is one of the six grapes officially allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux wines besides Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carmenere. It was brought to Argentina by a French agronomist and soil expert, Michel Aimé Pouget who had been in exile and had moved to Chile with his huge knowledge and several cuttings that included Malbec. He was invited by the President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento who had also been in Chile in exile, to run the Quinta Agronómica de Mendoza (wine school) founded on April 17, 1853.
The efforts made by Pouget, Sarmiento and the school in Mendoza played a key role in that process. For ‘Wines of Argentina’, April 17th is a day that represents both the transformation of Argentina’s wine industry and the starting point for the development of Malbec as its flagship variety and international emblem of the country’s viticulture and winemaking.
Today Argentina has about 38,000 hA of planted Malbec vines most of which are grown in Mendoza province, with France left with only 5000 hA. Rest of the world (including India where Sula grows a small quantity and blends with Merlot in its Satori Red) has reportedly 10,000 hA of plantation.
The characteristics of the grape change as one goes from North to South. In the North the grapes have a balanced structure ideal to create medium bodied expressive wines with spicy and dark berry aromas. In Mendoza’s central region it has mild sweetness and smooth silky tannins because of the gradual ripening of the grape and higher acidity due to falling temperatures near the harvest time. In South the structure is strong due to a warm day temperature of 40 °C plunging to 8 deg C, more abundant rainfall, more wines and wetter soils. Wines are fruity but with lower acidity and mineral shades, complementing floral notes.
Malbec gained international acclaim in the 90s with the USA and UK ‘discovering’ the grape and there has been no looking back ever since.
Not only Malbec
In order to help the Embassy create more awareness about Malbec and Argentine wines, Indian Wine Academy ran an interesting campaign for its 4700 members on Facebook by pinning a question on which was the most popular native (many people wrongly think of Malbec as a native variety which we know is as French as it gets, though it has done very well in Argentina and fortunately for the Argentines, Chile did not continue developing this variety and bend towards Carmenere after Pouget left Chile for Argentina).
There were hot discussions and comments posted, many of which veered towards Bonarda (which was developed in Italy and not Argentina), Pedro Gimenez white grape (different than Pedro Ximenez used to make sherry in southern Spain) and Criolla.
The correct Answer- Torrontés (we accepted the age-worthy varietal Torrontés Riojano, the simpler versions Torrontés San Juano and Torrontés from Mendoza as correct answers.
Parikshit Pramod Teldhune of Nashik won the prize of a bottle of Malbec, courtesy the Argentine Ambassador Guastavino who is very keen to promote Argentine wines and has promised support for any wine promotional activity. He also promised a Tango performance which is the other image one conjures up about Argentina (Polo and beef steaks being close contenders for the third spot!).
Subhash Arora |