“Viva el vino argentino!”

Viva el vino argentino translates to “Long live Argentine wine.” Now, I’m a big fan of Argentinian wine as there is a plethora of quality at a wide variety of price points. You can drink inexpensive wine at $15 that far exceeds its price point. You can also drink some top notch wine that competes with the best in the world. So I got pretty excited when I mentioned doing a tasting of Argentina for my wine group and they happily agreed. There were a few groans as people thought it would be just a tasting of Malbec wines. I ended up hosting the group at our house, which meant I would be doing the cooking. The only thing I know about the food of Argentina is that the country is known for their beef. Beyond that, I know nothing. And since I don’t know anyone from Argentina, I had to resort to the Internet. But with a few clicks I quickly learned a few of their most notable dishes. One is Carbonada, which is a stew for the colder months that has some peaches & pears added at the end. The other dish I wanted to make was Choripan, as it is served at every sporting event & is similar to a hot dog. It is comprised of grilled butterflied chorizo between a 6 inch grilled baguette, and is topped with chimichurri & some salsa. Sadly my internet order of Argentinian sausage didn’t show up on time due to the storm on Sunday. I decided to make the Carbonada a day ahead of time & decided to open up a Catena Cabernet Sauvignon as the recipe I was originally going to make called for some red wine. After a lot of research & fumbling around the grocery store, I found out that most recipes don’t add wine to the stew. So since I had this wine, I decided to open it while the stew cooked. Catena Zapata has been making wine since 1902 & is credited with being a pioneer in resurrecting Malbec. Nicolas is credited with putting Argentina wine on the world stage, and his daughter Laura has done an incredible job continuing what her father has done. Laura is the managing director & founder of the CIW institute, which has done more to advance Argentinian wine than any other winery. She is also a retired physician & author. Ernesto Bajda has been with Catena since 2002 & is their chief winemaker & has done an incredible job. Catena in my opinion makes some of, if not, the best wine in Argentina. Everything they make is of the highest quality, no matter what the price is. The Cabernet I opened is only $19.99 & a big bargain. The 2021 is a blend of four vineyards that are divided in to lots and harvested at different times. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks for roughly 2 weeks & post-fermentation maceration for roughly 3 weeks. They use wild yeasts and the wine is aged for 6-8 months in first, second & third barrels used. It is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc & 13% Petit Verdot. The wine shines with black & blue fruits, some herbs, spice, & a touch of graphite with medium acidity & nicely integrated tannins in a medium body. This is an easy wine to drink & super delicious. This is a wine to seek out as it won’t break the bank, & will definitely exceed your expectations. The stew turned out to be quite good, although it needed more salt in my opinion. The tasting went over very well as all kinds of different wines that were brought. After all, there’s more than Malbec being grown in Argentina. “Viva el vino argentino!”