Navarro Correas, Collection Privada 2006: Why So Angry?

Argentina is a place where I really want to go. In addition to wine, I love the outdoors, I love travel, and I love practicing my Spanish, and the country has it all (I shouldn't even mention this, but I have an even stronger tie to the country. My sister and I memorized the entire libretto to Evita when we were 4 and 7 and then begged my dad to get us tickets when it came to Broadway...JW, thanks again for making me be Che and all the other dudes in our daily re-enactments. No emotional scars here.).

Wine has been in Argentina since the Spanish explorers robbed and pillaged in the 1600s, and with the expansion of the railroad and a wave of Italian immigration in the 1880s, it became big business. Vineyards were set up in the mountains of Mendoza and the Argentineans drank like there was no tomorrow -- per capita they are in the top ten and have been for a long time (let me tell you, the US doesn't even rank. So drink up, friends!). That said, until a few decades ago, the wine was pretty nasty. It was made mostly from this rustic, tannic, gross grape called Criolla and although the systems were in place for better stuff to be grown, it really wasn't.

Then Chile blasted on the scene, selling wine to the US and making coin doing it. Not to be overshadowed by it's skinny neighbor to the west, Argentina realized that if they grew better stuff, like what Chile was growing (Cab, Merlot, Chard, etc) they may get a piece of the action too. They found a lot of success with a grape that was used in Bordeaux as a blending grape, but is now used less often because it's a pain to grow: Malbec. Then they gambled and put out Torrontes, an aromatic white (which you should try, if you haven't).

All success for these now signature grapes in the land of Evita.

So now Argentina's producers are looking for the big kahuna. To really make it in the US import market, you've got to have the a piece of the big three - Cab, Merlot, and Chard. So these savvy South Americans are making a go at it. Sometimes it works, sometimes, not so much. So let me hesitate no longer and discuss Navarro Correas, Collection Privada Cabernet Sauvignon....

The Wine: Navarro Correas, Collection Privada
The Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2006
Price: $11.99
Color: A dark purple, almost black color with a little bit of haze and a little brown around the edges. Warmer vineyard site=darker color, brown edges = it's gettin' older. Reds lighten up as they age. The brown edge is like grey hair on a person.
Smell: Right off the bat, strangely, I got a tomato-V8-grape juicy juice thing, with some dried oregano (pizza anyone?). On second whiff, there were expected smells. Cranberry, sour cherry, black currant, and sugar plum were first. Then I smelled rose, and nutmeg-vanilla stuff too.
Taste: This wine was like an adolescent. The components of normalcy were all there -- cranberry, sour cherry, dark raspberry, with some musk, leather, and licorice -- but the texture was so awkward that I felt helpless in the face of it. I tried this one over two nights to see if it would change or mature, so to speak. Nope. Raging angry tannins and high acid ran roughshod on my mouth. Between the tannins in the grape and the tannins of the oak -- ouch. That's all I can say. It was so aggressive and mean, the only relief I got was that the acid was high enough to shorten the finish and wash out that punishing texture.
Drink or Down the Sink?: Right now, this is Sink. I'm crying for you, Argentina, because I know you can do better. Perhaps with a few years of age this could be drinkable, and perhaps there are other producers that have tamed the tannins, but if I took this as an example, we're looking at a rebellious teenager trying to find its way. I'll give a few more a chance, knowing that if it doesn't work out, there's always beautiful Mendoza Malbec to fall back on.