South American wines

[lee-gold]

We will be in Rio a few days before boarding the Rotterdam.

We were thinking of bringing some wine on board from there.

But which? Does anyone know of any good 'local' wines?

We have no experience with South American wines.

Or ought we to stay away from them???

[dakrewser]

Brazilian wine leaves a lot to be desired. Argentine wine is plentiful and some is good but Chile makes the best wines in South America.

[Crusin-Suzan]

I totally agree. We brought a case on board when we went. We will also board in Rio in April and will bring a case with us. Even when they charge you a corkage fee its a much better deal than buying there wine.

[xpcdoojk]

I didn't find a wine shop in Rio November 2005. I preordered some champagne, vodka and Gin before we went so we had some necessities before we reached Montevideo. We bought a bit of wine in Uruguay at not great prices (It was Argentine wine). In Buenos Aires we had our guide take us to a local grocery store, where we loaded up with wines that were pretty good and very reasonably priced. In Punta Arenas Chile we had a cabby take us to a grocery store. OMG, talk about cheap wine. Very very reasonably priced and some nice wines. The brands were not export brands for the most part, those wines (such as Don Melchor the signature wine from Concha y Toro) were not a bargain. We found that if we paid 3 dollars for a Cab it was the equal to a $10 bottle in the states and if we bought a $10 cab it was equal to a $40 bottle in the states. Of course this pales in comparison to the Cava we just consumed in the Canary Islands at Xmas this year. Cordiniu is one of the very good export Cava (champagne) houses in Spain. They have a non export label called Rhondel. OMG, we were paying 1.80Euro less than $2.50 a bottle! It was excellent, and I mean truly excellent. Would kick Korbels bottom all over the tasting room. It truly tasted as good as any French Champagne. We found another Cava that we could buy for less than $2.00 a bottle and it was pretty good too. However the Rhondel demanded our mass consumption of it! hee hee. Bottom line in South America, it is pretty easy to buy wine as compared to Europe because they tend to make wines in American style and they declare the primary grape on the label. Unlike Spain where you have to figure out the grape by consuming it and guessing!;) So, if you like Chardonnay, you can easily find Chardonay, and you can usually tell if it is oaked or stainless steel aged. If you like Cabernet, they have it or Malbec which is a grape that is often grown in South America and is generally made in the same style.

 

jc

[garydm]

Try an Argentinian Malbec as another poster suggested. Both Norton and Terrazzas (had a bottle last night) are great if you like a substantive red. They are consistently rated in the low 90s by WS. Great purple color. They sell for $12-13 at Costco.

 

Gary

[cindywie]

Definitely try an Argentinian Malbec. It is wonderful. I spent 3 weeks in Argentina last year and the Malbecs are fantastic.