Food, drink and travel writer + sommelier | Argentina + Latin America
(The Independent) Argentina’s wine-making capital Mendoza (the name of the city and the province) is a welcome indulgence at any time of year. Dozens of bodegas(wineries) open their cellar doors year round to offer up tastings, paired lunches or picnics among vineyards, many in the shadow of the Andes’ handsome peaks. Besides its wine-making heritage, Mendoza – officially one […]
(Imbibe UK) Malbec is synonymous with Argentina, but its Mendoza heartland is stepping into a new era as winemakers seek to better express the region’s terroir with geographical indications (IGs). The rise in IGs – the newest is Los Chacayes, approved late 2018, with San Pablo and Gualtallary to follow suit this year – proves Mendoza […]
Tired of seeing women objectified in Argentine media, in 2018 I created a calendar featuring 12 semi-nude male chefs. And, tired of certain media and lists frequently putting male chefs on a pedestal, I’ve started compiling a non-ranking database, mapping notable women currently working in Argentine gastronomy or Argentine women working abroad. From their 20s […]
(Decanter) While Uco Valley and Cafayate are Argentina’s benchmark for making wine at altitude, the Quebrada is taking those extremes to new heights; it is home to the world’s highest vineyard at 3,329m above sea level. Granted Geographical Indication (GI) in 2015, just 12 years after the first commercial plantings, what the tiny 22ha Quebrada […]
(MIC – Out of Office) Visiting Mendoza, the wine capital of South America, is a sensory experience: The Andean region is pure eye candy, with hundreds of acres of vineyards tucked close to the mountains. Between a weak peso and increased international flights to Mendoza’s El Plumerillo International Airport, it’s an ideal time to visit Argentina’s glorious wine country. You’ll want […]
(The World’s 50 Best blog) When Germán Martitegui plans a pop-up, it’s no ordinary one-nighter helmed by a couple of his chefs. Instead, he goes 180º – and then some. Closing his restaurant in Buenos Aires for an unprecedented six weeks from 24th February, Martitegui has transferred his entire 24-strong team to SuperUco winery in Uco Valley, Mendoza, […]
(New Worlder) A founding member of Argentine rock band Serú Girán, a Grammy-award winner, and now 99 James Suckling points for his first blend: Pedro Aznar’s talents seemingly know no boundaries. The singer-songwriter’s winemaking partner-in-crime? None other than Marcelo Pelleriti from Monteviejo, the first Argentine enologist to score 100 Parker points for his Château La […]
(Fortune) After three tough years, Argentine winemakers look to turn the corner. In Mendoza, Argentina, 58 top international sommeliers will get together starting Friday to compete in the A.S.I. Best Sommelier of the World Contest, where they will spend five days sniffing, swirling and spitting in a quest to clinch the title of the world’s […]
(TRA) In part five of The Real Argentina’s somms series, we meet Paz Levinson, the second of two Argentine sommeliers competing in the A.S.I. Concours du Meilleur Sommelier du Monde 2016 (A.S.I. Contest of the Best Sommelier of the World). Currently ranked number one in both the Americas and Argentina, and the only Argentine to […]
MENDOZA – When you excavate 1,000 lorries worth of mountainous rocks in order to plant vineyards, the only logical outcome for all that surplus material – if your name is Sebastián Zuccardi – is to build a winery with it. And from Wednesday, Bodega Zuccardi Valle de Uco throws open its doors to its second […]