Old vineyards produce good Argentinian wine

It has been more than two and a half years since Argentina has gotten any play in this column, but in a recent blind tasting of a series of wines from South America, I found a couple of gems -- one from Chile reviewed a few weeks ago, and now this Silvertop Malbec from the best location in Argentina.

Silvertop is from a classic bodega located in the Mendoza region, which also happens to be one of the world's largest wine growing areas.

Old vineyards planted with the bordeaux grape varietal malbec can really come into their own in Mendoza, producing wonderful and great value-priced wines. The malbec vines there are on average about 30 years of age and produce good earthy and spicy wines quite typical of the varietal.

Interestingly, in Bordeaux, where malbec originated, it is now almost extinct, as it produced wines that were too hard or austere for the modern palate.

Argentina has, with its very cheap labor and deflated peso, become an competitor on the world wine market, as it is not faced with a currency that is soaring against the greenback, like the euro or the Australian dollar. That makes the wines from Argentina -- already great in quality -- currently some of the best quality-to-price-ratio wines on the market and there are lots of them, like this Silvertop, which is all the better for the savvy wine consumer.

In the glass, this Silvertop Malbec is a lightish semi-opaque garnet-red color with a firm red to slightly tinged rim definition and medium viscosity. On the nose, there is an immediate whiff of freshly baked cherry pie, fruit tart and blueberry coulis, followed by phenols, red ripe fruits, red plums, some herbs and hints of tobacco and stony minerals.

In the mouth, the wine shows soft, ripe red and black cherry fruit, quite pure blackcurrant character, Morrello cherry juice and no hints of oak whatsoever, meaning it comes across really clean with the fruits through the mid-palate, showing nice tannin structure. The finish is medium-long and has hints of minerality.

Altogether a wonderfully rounded, yet fruit-forward wine that is well made and highly recommended for its tremendous value. Try it with a traditional Argentinean carne asada. Drink it now through 2008.

Wine: Silvertop Malbec 2005

Grape: Malbec (100 percent)

Region: Mendoza, Argentina

Vintage: 2005

Price: $ 5.99

Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749.