January Wine Club: Discover Argentine Cortes
What better way to warm up in the winter than some rich, silky reds blends from Argentina? We can’t think of any! So for the first Wine Club of 2019, we want to introduce you to a concept particular to Argentina, cortes.
Corte literally means “cut” in Spanish, and it refers to the process of taking parts of batches of wines, or cuts, and mixing them together. You can kind of imagine this as similar to film editing, where scenes are literally cut out and then pasted together in the order the director feels best tells the story. The same is true to Argentine winemakers. They want each bottle to tell a story.
Technically, a corte does not have to be comprised of multiple different grapes. There are many single varietal cortes, where the grapes came from different vineyards or where vinified differently before blending. For this Wine Club, however, we decided to go with two multi-varietal cortes to give you an idea of how choices made during blending lead to very different wines, even if the grapes are similar.
Monte Quieto Corte Alegre 2015
This corte leads with malbec at 47%, followed by cabernet franc (29%), and then syrah (24%). It’s texture is alluring and its fruits run bright and deep. It has a distinct earthiness, likely from the cab franc and syrah, that gives it exception balance.
Monte Quieto is a small bodega, nestled at the foot of a mountain by the same name in Agrelo, Mendoza. Husband and wife team Matilde Pereda and Agustín Casabal founded the winery in 2000.
Matilde and Agustín’s love first blossomed in large part because of their shared passion for finding and enjoying special wine together. It was only fitting that they, along with their four children who’ve grown up among the vines, have been creating special wines for the better part of two decades. They now have three vineyards, having added one in Ugarteche and Vista Flores to the original in Agrelo.
Bodega y Cavas de Weinert “Carrascal” N/V
This is hands down one of the most fascinating wines we have had the pleasure to discover in our search for amazing Wine Club offerings. The blend itself is quite common: 45% malbec, 35% cabernet sauvignon, 20% merlot.
That’s where the “common” part of this wine ends, however. The batches blended to create this corte are not only from different vineyards, they’re from different vintages! Excluding 2014 and 2016, the winery used wine from every year from 2004 to 2017. The result is astounding, as the wine has a mossy, dusty finish that clearly comes from the older vintages, yet a vibrancy and focus of fruit that the more recent vintages provide.
Weinert is one of our favorite producers. They helped usher in the “Malbec Revolution” with their attention to detail and exceptional quality. Yet, they do not rest on their laurels, striving for innovative and interesting new approaches to winemaking. This wine epitomizes their strong and storied history, and their ability to think outside the box. We absolutely love this wine and winery!
The festivities start at 1pm this Sunday, January 27th. Our good friend Craig from Comete Wines will be on hand to pour some contextual wines. See you Sunday!