2012CocodriloCortebyVinaCobos

Sans If you have a wallet fat enough to follow the American wine scene, you’ll know there’s no denying the excitement of tasting a Cabernet from the likes of Harlan Estate, Screaming Eagle or Paul Hobbs. With prices sometimes in the hundreds of dollars, combined with their hard-to-get status, these wines have been known to generate a kind of hysteria in otherwise sensible adults. Paul Hobbs presently stands out from the pack, not only as a “quality fanaticâ€? but as a trail blazer credited with proving the winemaking potential in Argentina, despite the sceptics. Fifteen years ago, ‘Outback Jacksâ€?were turning on the Shiraz tap in the US and UK markets. Now Gauchos are doing the same with Argentinean Malbec. The present scene is a far cry from an industry once content supplying mass produced wines for locals to consume like there was no tomorrow. (Argentineans were drinking a staggering 90 litres of wine per capita by the end of the 1960s) When over production hit, the effects were devastating. Out of the maelstrom, deregulation policies of the early 90s sparked a renewed interest in winemaking with a focus on quality. It was a sobering up of sorts. Argentine vintners were suddenly looking abroad, not only for inspiration but also for new markets as domestic consumption plummeted by nearly half.