Fabril Alto Verde
This family owned producer in San Juan province farms its vineyards organically, but until 2000, struggled to convert excellent grapes into excellent wines. Since then, with the help of foreign organic wine specialists, Fabril Alto Verde has hit stride, in particular with Malbec red wines under the Buenas Ondes label. The wines show a mix of loganberry and spiced cherry fruit, with ripe tannins tasting of dark chocolate in the aftertaste.
Monty Waldin's 'Wines of South America' (Mitchell Beazley, 2003).
Finca Alma
Winemaker Alejandra Lozano and former wine salesman Marcelo Manghi founded Finca Alma in 1998 in Coquimbito, in Maipù, Central Mendoza. The couple use their contacts in the industry to source quality grapes from well-sited vineyards across Mendoza province. They produce around 200,000 bottles annually. Their Alhue label is named after a Mapuche word meaning 'soul' or 'inner light'. It includes well-made, clean tasting red wines characterized by generous black fruit flavours, made from Bonarda, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Merlot, and well-crafted white wines from Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
Monty Waldin's 'Wines of South America' (Mitchell Beazley, 2003).
Oz Clarke Raves over Argentinian Bonarda
This week at home I picked out a dozen bottles at random from the
samples I am sent to taste. Among the more predictable wines like
Australian Shiraz and Chilean Chardonnay - yet 15 years ago we wouldn't
be saying they were predictable and many shops wouldn't be stocking
them - was a wild and wonderful bunch that made me marvel at how
wide-reaching our world of wine is now. I had a Bonarda from Mendoza
in Argentina - a wonderful, perfumed red. I had a Carignan from
Morocco - beefy but good. I had a Tannat from Uruguay, a Cabernet
Franc from California, a Primitivo from Southern Italy, a Viognier
from Southern France - and so it went on. There were also bottles from
Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Chianti - but they didn't hold centre stage,
they didn't lord it over the other lesser known wines... And if I
had to say which I enjoyed the most? It was the Bonarda from
Argentina - a virtually unknown grape, from a vast vineyard land
that is only now waking up after a century of slumber - and it was
the cheapest wine of the lot. And that is the joy of the modern
world of wine.
Oz Clarke's New Encyclopedia of Wine (Websters International, 2003).
Oz Clarke's web site can be found here: www.ozclarke.com