Argentine wine maker comes to Dallas with malbecs and more

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — The word of the hour was "malbec". The place: Sevy's Grill in Preston Center, where winemaker Alberto Arizu presided over a small gathering at lunch on Thursday, showcasing wines from Bodega Luigi Bosca, the family-run Argentinian winery started by his great grandfather in 1901.

Though grown all over the world, the malbec grape has become the unofficial national grape of Argentina, and like any wine producer in Argentina, it's Luigi Bosca's specialty; of the half dozen wines Arizu featured at the four-course luncheon, three were malbecs.

But malbec isn't the only thing his winery does; he poured everything from a fruity white to a cabernet-bouchet blend.

He started with a Luigi Bosca Reserva sauvignon blanc, a fruity white, to accompany the opening "warm crostini" appetizer course.

Next, a pair of malbecs for comparing and contrasting: Finca La Linda malbec, an $11 red that he called intense and drinkable, but not necessarily complex; and Luigi Bosca malbec DOC, a more delicate, perfumey red, more complex and more expensive at $25 a bottle. Those went with the second courses of spicy duck flautas and wild game sausages, a trio that included buffalo, rabbit, and venison.

Third course was slow-roasted Kobe pot roast with garlic mashed potatoes and beef tenderloin with grilled vegetables. Sevy's chef-owner Jim Severson came out and said hello, describing what he does as "simple food, prepared well". He was right.

The wines: Gala 1, a $40-per-bottle blend culled from the winery's various vineyards with 85% malbec, 10% petit verdot, and 5% tannat; and Finca Los Nobles Cabernet Bouchet, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and bouchet from 90-year-old vines, sold for $73.

Fourth course was cheese, selected to spotlight the climactic showpiece wine: Icono (photo at top), a malbec-cabernet sauvignon blend that commands $150 a bottle and has such a limited production -- 4,700 bottles -- that it's sold almost entirely to collectors. The key to this wine, Arizu said, is that it represents the terroir, not the design of the winemaker.

Arizu, 41, is the oldest of four brothers, and has worked for the family business all his life. His duties as Commercial and International Affairs Director include marketing and communications. He'd been traveling all week: Miami, New York, New Jersey, and Dallas, and was en route to a wine expo in France.

Interesting tidbits:

• His description of the market in England as demanding, competitive: "They don't produce anything and they drink everything," he said.
• And this line, from distributor Greg LeBlanc: "You cannot drink a complex wine every day."

Others in attendance: publicist Rebekah Polster, Dallas wine guy Darryl Beeson, Madelyn "Travel Lady" Miller, and Hayley Hamilton, blogger for D Magazine food blog SideDish. After Polster professed her passion for barbecue, chef-owner Jim Severson unearthed some jars of his own bottled BBQ sauce which he presented as gifts.