By Dale Robertson for Chron.comThere are a lot of good days on the wine beat because there are so many passionate, engaging people in the wine world. And, OK, so much fun juice to sample, too.
But this job turns into bottled poetry when you make a new friend who delivers a delicious wine at a reasonable price, and he also has a compelling story to tell.
Ernesto Bajda batted 1.000 on his first visit to Houston recently. Nesti, as everybody calls him, is a boy-wonder winemaker from Argentina's Mendoza, the vast vineyard Shangri-La in the shadow of the Andes. Only 32, Bajda is the man behind the delicious Don Miguel Gascón Malbecs, which routinely offer a satisfying convergence of quality and value.
But Bajda has actually over-delivered on his 2009 Riserva, a deep-purple powerhouse laden with dark fruit and mocha notes for less than $25. His just-released "ordinary" Gascón Malbec from the distinctive 2010 vintage, with its lower alcohol and higher acidity than normally seen from Mendoza, is a similar bargain for under $15.
Bajda makes the latter intending to express the purest essence of high-altitude Mendoza fruit. He finesses the former, he said, to show us "what Malbec can be."
That's easy to do, of course, when you're charging $50 and up. But to have accomplished the same at $25? Bajda and his bosses at Bodegas Escorihuela Gascón - the oldest winery in Mendoza, dating from 1884, is now part of the famous...Read Full Article
