Argnetine Wines at Publix

Argentine wines compete for Florida supermarket shelf space. The new ad campaign isn't going to help.

Wines of Argentina, the entity uniting over 200 major vineyards with the goal of promoting the Argentine wine industry in foreign countries, has unveiled a new logo and ad campaign designed to reposition the “Wines of Argentina” brand. But rather than simply defining the value proposition of Argentine wines with a few bullet points or salient takeaways, the campaign is a self-absorbed melange of contradictory words and phrases leaving Argentina wine novices more confused than ever.

Instead of emphasizing what makes Argentine wines truly unique (e.g., price:quality ratio, amazing blends, different altitudes, dominant Malbecs, emerging Bonardas and Torrontés), the new campaign addresses dozens of contradictions and personality traits of Argentines in a three-minute YouTube video. Not a single glass of wine appears in the entire video filled with images of BA traffic, glaciers, soccer fans, quilts and nonsensical quotes like “We oscillate between pride and reproach, success and skepticism, love and terror.” Amid the verbal chaos, you halfway expect Derek Zoolander’s Merman to swim to the surface and declare “Malbec is the essence of moisture.”

The new campaign debuts next week at VinExpo in Bordeaux complete with new fuchsia (yes, fuchsia) logo which 52% of MDZ Online readers apparently do not like. Whether France and the rest of the world warm to the new campaign remains to be seen, but it’s hard to imagine how something so introspective, conflicted and 100% Castellano helps sell even one bottle of wine in the hyper-competitive world of international wine sales. (Full Story in Spanish)

Argentina Bonarda

Argentine sommelier Rodrigo Griguela recommends five premium and super premium Bonardas.

They call it Dolce Nero in Italy, Charbono in California and Corbeau Noir in the Savoy region of France. With so many different names, ongoing debate over its European origins, and a less-than-lujoso introduction in Argentina, sommelier and wine author Rodrigo Griguela attempts to set the record straight on the grape known locally as Bonarda. It’s a much-needed analysis considering Bonarda is now the second most produced varietal in Argentina after Malbec.

The journey began at the end of the 19th century when Italian immigrants first brought Bonarda to Mendoza. Planting was modest and Bonarda only accounted for about 15,000 acres by the mid-1930′s, but production ramped up dramatically in the 1960′s in a quest for quantity over quality.

That Bonarda growers were able to achieve high production is testament to Argentina’s climate and soil conditions, writes Griguela, because Bonarda requires lots of sunlight, has a lengthy vegetation cycle and often doesn’t reach the right maturity level in large-scale production.

Unlike the early days of mass production, today’s Argentina wineries are putting the emphasis back on quality over quantity with Bonarda, and the result has been several Premium and Super Premium wines that are gaining fans in the U.S., Brazil and England among other countries.

Griguela says Nieto Senetiner and Zuccardi were the pioneers who truly believed in Bonarda, a wine he describes as floral with fresh red fruit notes, velvety tanins and a freshness that gives it a unique acidity. In addition to the two aforementioned wines, Griguela gives high marks to three other Bonardas: 2008 Colonia Las Liebres, 2008 Alma 4 and 2006 Mora Negra. (Full Article in Spanish)

For more information on Argentina wine and vineyards, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

San Rafael Vineyard

Regions like San Rafael offer foreign investors a region reminiscent of Sonoma County in the 1970s.

Politicians are a bit like chess players in the way they are constantly plotting their next moves: pushing new agendas, pursuing re-election or seeking higher office. But for one Alaska politician, the next move was as original as it was unexpected.

Wasilla City Council member Nancy Hall announced she will step down from her post and move with her husband to run a vineyard in San Rafael, Argentina. Hall and her husband, Gary, traveled to Chile looking for vineyard opportunities in 2009.

She returned to work in Alaska but Gary began to focus on Argentina vineyards after visiting their son in Buenos Aires. A few days later Nancy says, “I got this phone call that said, ‘Honey, I bought a vineyard.’

The couple told the Anchorage Daily News that San Rafael reminds them of California’s Sonoma County in the 1970s before it exploded. Their newly-acquired vineyard, Shadow of the Andes, grows the increasingly-popular Bonarda grapes, but Hall is quick to clarify their role in the overall Argentine wine supply chain: “We grow the grapes, we don’t make the wine.” The couple plans to keep their Wasilla home and divide time between Alaska and Argentina enjoying what the ADN calls “a life of perpetual summer spanning the two hemispheres.”

For more information about owning your own vineyard in Argentina, click here and download the new issue InvestBA Privada.

Argentine wines being served at Montreal's Passion Vin

Canadian festivals like Montreal Passion Vin are helping bring more Argentine reds to market.

While the U.S. is scheduled to become the world’s largest wine-drinking market by 2012, the neighbor to the north isn’t lagging behind.

“Canadians might have a new passion to add after hockey: being wine connoisseurs,” the country’s Financial Post opined early last year. As one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for wine consumption, Canada is an important export destination for many Argentine vineyards.

Canada also offers an interesting case study in the maturity and increasing diversity, both in terms of blends and geography, of Argentine offerings abroad. While lower-priced malbecs and malbec-shiraz blends from Mendoza helped fuel a 27% increase in wine consumption from 2003-07, Canadian wine connoisseurs are starting to discover the joys of Bonardas, Torrontes, Tempranillos, Pinot Noirs and even Cabernet Francs produced in other Argentine regions like San Juan and La Rioja to the north and Neuquen to the south. (Map)

Canadian wine critics from Edmonton to Montreal weighed in this week with their recommendations which focused on these newer, pricier blends from Argentina. The geographic expansion beyond Mendoza bodes well for foreign investors looking to produce unique blends in the sandy soil of Salta or the cooler climes of Neuquen.

While experimental vineyards have been producing wines in these regions for less than a decade, the results have been phenomenal. Wine Spectator’s Matt Kramer confirmed this with a recent journey to Salta and an excellent review of several southern bodegas titled Into the Patagonia Desert.

For more information about Argentina wine and vineyards, visit our archives and download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

 

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