QWR: Bodega Garzón Cabernet Franc Reserve 2015

Today “new” Uruguay gets its shot at winning me over.

When I started in the business in the mid-00’s, Uruguayan wine that we saw here in the US was problematic…generally of fairly poor quality and reflective of unclean winemaking practices. The wines were typically in one of two camps: sickly sweet (ostensibly by virtue of preference, but, in reality, mostly to hide flaws) or Tannat that was so tannic that it made Madiran Tannat seem joyously approachable. To be fair, this is where most countries begin their journey into worldwide acceptance.

Over the years I have revisited on occasion with guarded interest. There have been some reasonably nice examples along the way, but nothing that would unseat a similarly priced wine of the same variety from somewhere else off of my retail shelf.

I have followed the activity in the Uruguayan wine scene in recent years and will say that in the last year, it has become the one destination I wish to visit for wine (and food, and culture, in general) over all others in the world. It seems the rise of Uruguayan wine has been swift, remarkable, and worthy of exploration. The allure of the culture and landscape is just as undeniable.

Bodega Garzón, the leader of modern Uruguayan wine led by star winemaker, Alberti Antonini, has the best shot of breaking through world-wide. Not just to the elite wine cognoscenti with their top-tier wines, but to the world wine market writ large with their entry-tier products. This wine is one of the latter.

100% Cabernet Franc; 14.5% abv

Appearance: dark translucent ruby with a walnut core

Aroma: stewed berries, earthy spice, slight eucalyptus overtone

Palate: rich stewed black cherry and plum, medium body, faint acid

Finish: delicate , oak-tinged tannins, lingering licorice

Given a choice between this and Uruguay’s flagship grape, Tannat, this may not be the better wine but it had the softness and fruitiness my leftover chili called for. Just a nice wine. This is a fine example of the strides Uruguayan wine has made in very short order and a wonderful harbinger of the promise of its future.

Can be found in the US East Coast market around $15.

QWR: 2012 Paxis Red Blend

Bulldog? “Paxis!”

 

The goal was simple: find a fruity, no-fuss wine to pair with tacos and burritos (made with pork, jalepeños, avocado, tomato, red onion, cheddar, and a spicy yogurt sauce I like to make). The original plan was to go with Garnacha from NE Spain but I saw this on the shelf and just felt it was right. I had brought it into a shop I consult with several months ago and remembered its sweet fruit and thought of it as a nice spice-quelling match for the meal.

Appearance: ruby with a deep violet core

Nose: overt ripe, black cherry and plum

Palate: super-ripe black cherry and blackberry, not too heavy but hinting toward syrupy

Mouthfeel: ridiculously supple with sufficient fruit acid to peek through

Finish: vaguely velvety tannins and a touch of licorice-y astringency

Fun, early Autumn meal.

Well, it is certainly as fruity as I remembered. The sweetness definitely worked well with the spice of the dish, but those sugars provided a body richness that came close to being too much.

Plenty to like here as a sipper and will certainly appeal to the modern American red blend drinker despite Portugal (Lisboa, to be specific) nor the grapes Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) and Caladoc—neither listed on the bottle—being part of the typical knowledge-base. Nothing spectacular, but I certainly can’t argue with the relative value with the price at around $10.

 

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