Bodega Renacer Punto Final Clasico Malbec 2006

At around $10 a bottle, this Argentinian Malbec is perhaps the best valued wine I've rated on this blog! I first had this at the Veranda, where Nick tries hard to maintain a huge list of wines that are good value but difficult to find. If someone else in town carries any of his wines he replaces it with something even harder to find.

While New World wines, particularly from South America, have gained in popularity, they tend to be jammy and fruit forward compared to their Old World counterparts. Nick claims that I'm an "Old World" guy but when you have a wine like Punto Final...well, it's enough to make me want to convert.

Straight out of the bottle take note of the deep ruby color - not a wimpy Pinot purple :-) !! The nose is spicy and toasty but well balanced. The palatte is full of dark berries (blackberry!) and spice. Overall I found this to be well balanced, a hint of oak but not overoaked...fruit but not overly fruit forward...a tinge of earth (which I *love* in wine) but not like smelling fresh dirt.

I had cracked open a Chilean 60% Cab 40% Carm the previous evening for the same price. Good, but it tasted like nearly every other $10 bottle you can get (and many cheaper wines are better!). But this Punto Final...well...I can't say enough about it.

Overall an excellent wine. With only 5,500 cases made, it is going to be difficult to find. But if you can, scoop up a few bottles!

On Oak...

(pic of oak barrels from B.R. Cohn Winery)

I still consider myself quite new to wine. I struggle every time I taste a new glass, dissecting the layers, detecting the subtle scents, coaxing the colors out...

But one of my favorite things about wine, I've discovered, is oak. Some, but not all wines, are oaked. This means that it spends at least some time in an oak barrel. Traditionally this is a French or American Oak. Interestingly, Central Minnesota is home to some of the finest American Oak barrels.

Now - the process of properly oaking a wine is extremely complex. Not only does the amount of time that a wine spends in oak vary greatly, so do the methods. For the most part, wine is exposed to oak in an oak barrel. How else would it be, you might ask? Well, some less scrupulous wine makers will add oak chips to a steel barrel.

Don't worry, I won't name names ;-) But isn't that like adding a few mesquite chips to Match Light charcoal?

Speaking of charcoal, another aspect of barrel aging is that most barrels are "toasted", or slightly burned in the manufacturing process. Some are purposely charred on the inside, imparting all sorts of wonderful aromas, colors and flavors (in fact, charring is the only reason that a fine Scotch has any color at all).

The balance of air, oak and time yields the most amazing results. In a white wine, oak can sometimes be sharp or nutty but in a red it is a vital aspect of the experience, adding layers of spice and vanilla.

Oak is usually one of the first layers that I can pick up when tasting, and it is something I both enjoy identifying and actively search out when rolling the first drops across my tongue.

Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc 2006

New Zealand is a quickly growing wine region. The Marlborough area, located at the north end of the south island, produces quality reds and whites at a decent price. One of my favorite whites this summer has been Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc.



It is crisp, with apple and citrus tones, grassy and pretty well-balanced for the price. For about $10 this is a great buy!