Anyway, some notes from the two blind tastings. The first included Bob and I plus six dinner guests, the second a group of about 30.
First tasting:
2009 Guggenheim, $10: Youthful, simple, dilly finish. Tastes cheap.
2009 Catena, $21: Deep, brooding, serious color, med-full body, serious flavors, tobacco, good tannins, concentrated, ageable, probably the dryest wine of this lot and the most European. Buy for the tasting.
2007 Vina Alicia 'Paso de Piedra', $21: Ripe strawberry flavors, all red fruit, tasty and distinctive. Buy for the tasting.
2009 Vistalba (with 20% cabernet) $14: Rich and modern, but midly corked.
2008 Lamadrid Single Vineyard Reserva, $17: Red bell peppers amid the red and black fruit, very balanced and fresh. Buy for the tasting.
2007 Luigi Bosca Single Vineyard, $24: Blacker fruit with green bell pepper and some grippy tannins. Blue fruit emerges as the wine relaxes, along with some tobacco and coffee notes. Changed every time I tasted it; all good. The Lamadrid was preferred in this flight 7-to-1, but since I was the "1" holdout I put it on the tasting list anyway.
2010 Ruta 22, $11: From Patagonia. Blueberry fruit, forward, nice sweetness but lacks depth.
2008 Norton Reserva, $18: Subtle, refined, well-balance and complete. Perhaps the most 'claret-like' of the wines. Got all 8 votes. But I so didn't want to include a Norton, it just seemed so obvious. So I didn't.
2009 Crios, $15: Not a thing wrong with this wine--it's a real crowd pleaser style without being overly 'easy'--but there was nothing special about it either for the tasting, so Pass. The best part was telling the wine guy at the store that I once had dinner with it's winemaker, Susana Balbo. He demanded to know what she looked like, his face all open and hopeful thinking that I was going to describe a Bianca Jagger in her heydey, say. Nope, closer to Dr. Ruth.
Second tasting:
2009 Colome Estate, $26: Couldn't get three bottles of the Luigi Bosca, this was the substitute. 85% malbec with tannat, cab sauv and syrah on 30% new American and 70% French oak. Garnet color. Funky barnyard nose that took an hour to blow off and reveal cedar. Medoc-like with spice, violets and espresso; elegant mouthfeel and finish. Big Jay's notes on it suggest a drinking window out to 2024. I don't think I see that kind of future for it, maybe another five years, but I liked it and found the leftovers impressively developed two days later. 5th place because of that funk.
2008 Lamadrid Single Vineyard Reserva, $17: All the things I said above, but with a bit of plastic on the nose that I didn't remember and found offputting. One bottle may not have had that problem because one table gave this wine a bunch of first place votes. It was wine F, so I dubbed that table "My little F-ers". Still, one table does not a success make, so it was group last place. However, it's fair to note that this wine was by far the most improved on the 48 hour test. Not just in terms of closing the gap, but for becoming one of the most interesting wines we re-tasted, period. It has more potential than I gave it credit for, and will reward short-term cellaring too.
2008 Vina Alicia 'Los Compuertas', $29: Couldn't get more of the Alicia mentioned above, so gladly accepted this micro-cuvee of just 700 cases from 150 year old vines as a substitute. The lightest in color of the six wines, very ruby vs. Big Jay's "glass-staining opague purple" but not a lightweight. Very exotic nose with heady incense-y spices and just lovely to drink right now in every way. Irresistable to me and everyone else, first place.
2009 Catena $21: What I said above, and even more impressive in this shorter line-up of higher quality wines. Took longer to open and show it's potential than most of the others, so only fourth place with the group. My second place wine, though, and the wine I'd buy if I were to buy just one of these to lay down for the future. Showed much better two days later.
2008 Gascon Reserva, $23: I didn't test this with the first group as I'd already bought it for the tasting based on a previous positive experience. Full bodied with a deep violet color with a load of black fruit and sweet mocha lingering on the finish. Velvety and rich. My 3rd place wine, though in truth I liked the Alicia, Catena and Gascon all pretty equally, just for slightly different reasons. Group 3rd, too.
2009 Tikal 'Amorio', $32: 100% malbec aged for 16 months in 60% new French oak before bottling unfined and unfiltered. For all that, I found it slicker and more modern in mouthfeel than most of the other wines, and more redolent of vanilla-like oak flavors. Very open and effortlessly enjoyable, so second place for the group and fifth place for me.