March 7 - Ted’s summary

March 7 Ted’s Summary 

...of the Argentina Wine Festival Experience

- Parades were fascinating.

- The interesting part was the 2nd evening of the 2-day closed street party, with many wineries offering tastes.  We expected more of this during the harvest festival.

- ‘Queen selection’ was a big event. Declined to to the arena with 10,000 other people because of the logistics of getting there and back when it started at 10pm. Also we are not that keen on the Stampede evening show either, lots of dancing, singing, etc.

-  The Wines. Wine tours: Showcased very few exceptional wines. Enjoyed Cab Franc at Pulenta. Malbec at Soophenia. Single Vineyard Malbec at Norton. 

- Really good wines cost C$50+. Very hard to justify.

- Many wineries using new  French oak barrels once, reflected in prices, many wines don’t merit such expensive treatment. 

- in all tours, hard to find good, current drinking Malbec. Too cheap or thin or way too expensive and immature.

- Very reminiscent of Napa/Sonoma in the early years, trying to impress and stand out with new oak barrels. Not sure end product justified it. 

- Most wineries very modern.  Many small production around 1 million bottles a year. Then Giants, only visited Norton.