AnuvaBlog

One of the coolest, hippest ideas in a long time is to actually take the joke that is Spanglish, and turn it into something useful. This is what Maya May has done with Spanglish Exchange.

The concept of Spanglish Exchange basically combines English - Spanish language exchange conversations with speed dating. Attendees sign up as either native English or native Spanish speakers and then are paired with people from the opposite group for language exchange. Each pair spends 5 minutes speaking in Spanish and then 5 minutes speaking in English. It is a great way to practice for both groups as well as meet people, be social and find groups of people who are doing interesting things.

Obviously, people who attend this are going to be English speaking foreigners who want to speak better Spanish, and Spanish speaking locals of Buenos Aires who want to speak better English.

The best part is that it only costs 25 pesos and it includes a drink!

They also have events, dinners, club nights and a Spanish school called SpanishCool (pronounced “Spanish School”) that teaches Spanish to foreigners in innovative ways. There are classes on pickup lines, food and restaurants, transportation and other very useful topics to travelers and expatriates.

I highly recommend this for anyone with even the most basic level of Spanish who wants to improve.

www.anuvawines.com

In Argentine wine news, bottled wine exports from Argentina have had explosive growth in sales in the US, Canada, and Netherlands in 2010. Sparkling wines from Argentina are doing especially well: they had a 47.7% increase in volume and 36.5% increase in value in the first quarter of 2010. Check out this article for more information:

http://www.winesur.com/news/uk-imports-decline-and-netherlands-takes-over

www.anuvawines.com

It never ceases to amaze me how many people need an answer to this question… so here we go.

Wine is subjective and is only meant to please your senses. If it offends your senses, you should not drink it! People find wine intimidating because it is associated with snobbery and connoisseurs who supposedly know much more about what you like than you do. Here is the truth: the only truth about wine is what you like. If that means 2 buck chuck, then so be it. If that means only Lafite or Margaux, then fine (but you better have some deep pockets).

So the truth about flawed wine is that it simply smells or tastes foul. There are all kinds of reasons why a wine is corked or flawed, from sun exposure to heat exposure to bacterial contamination.

When you sit down at a restaurant and order a wine, especially one that you know already, it should have some pleasing characteristics to you. Fruit, flowers or spices in the aromas, and similar characteristics along with more complexities like smoke, leather and tobacco and so forth. These are all positive things.

If a wine smells like dirty socks, sweaty socks, gym socks, or “barnyard” (fecal), this is your first indicator that the wine is flawed.  I have, however, experienced “stinky” wines that border on fecal and barnyard in the nose, yet in the mouth are completely luscious and delightful. This is almost never the case, though.

The point is that if the wine smells bad, you should still taste it. If when you taste it, however, it also tastes foul, fecal or barnyard, it is almost definitely flawed.

If you are still in doubt, and at a nice restaurant where you have ordered an expensive bottle (whatever that is for you), and may feel embarrassed about sending it back, ask the sommelier or waiter or wine steward to try the wine. 9 times out of 10 they will likely agree with you that it is flawed and simply bring you another bottle. No harm done. The restaurant will actually ask their distributor for a replacement, who in turn will ask the winery or importer for a replacement.

It is well known that wine bottles that use natural corks have about a 5% failure rate. That means that one in twenty bottles is flawed!

So be diplomatic but don’t be shy about letting you opinion be known.

www.anuvawines.com

I have been a bit leery of writers, press and affiliates coming to our wine tastings while we have clients. It is understandable that that is what they would want. While the majority have been very nice and cordial, some have ruined the wine tasting by turning the discussion to business in front of our guests instead of waiting politely.

Because of this, I gave Jon Brandt a very hard time before he came to a wine tasting. Reluctantly, and after much online correspondence, I decided to take the risk.  And then he wrote this amazing article on Argentinas Travel about our wine tastings! Not only that he posted us to his blog as well and struck me as a genuine, hard working kind of guy who really cares about his writing and Argentina. Cheers to that!

One of the biggest problems with Argentina, in all of its regions from Mendoza to Buenos Aires to Salta to Rio Negro, is fake or counterfeit currency. So how do you prevent yourself from getting robbed (essentially)?

First, be vigilant. Most of the time you will get fake bills in Buenos Aires from taxis, kiosks and diarieros (news stands). But that doesn’t mean that a high end clothing shop or restaurant won’t pass you a fake bill as well. Or even a bank! So EVERY time you get change, especially of a hundred, look through at least some of the bigger bills for fakes.

Second, learn to spot the fake (called “trucho” in Spanish in Argentina) bills. There are some key points to look at. The watermark must be there when you hold it up to the light. The first part of this is the face of the “figure head” on the pesos. If the watermark looks drawn on or painted on, then its fake.

Also, look at the interlaced foil which is just off-center on 50 and 100 peso notes. It should be real foil, that you can see is a separate piece, interlaced into the note itself. If it’s drawn on or painted on, it’s trucho!

Last, the paper quality. This is not really noticeable if you are only holding one fake note. You have to compare it to a real one to feel the difference. Basically, fake notes are printed on computer printer paper and real ones are printed on, well, real paper. It is easy to tell when the notes are side by side.

My personal habit, whenever I am getting more than 20 pesos change is to hold the bills up to the light and look for the watermark. This is a common practice and I’m sure you will see people do it, now that you are informed.

Cuidense!

www.anuvawines.com

Part of my responsibility as an expat in Argentina is to speak the truth about the restaurants here, especially the asado and parrilla, aka steakhouses of Buenos Aires.

One of the most famed, La Cabrera, on Cabrera and Thames in the heart of Palermo Soho in Buenos Aires, has lived up to its reputation.

My wife and two friends joined me for a fabulous evening. Although we tried to make reservations, they only accept them until 830 and have an infernal line for miles. We waited over an hour for our table. This piece of the puzzle is only one of 3 things that I found mildly–emphasis on the mild–wrong with the restaurant.

Overall the food was absolutely outstanding. We started with Mollejas (sweetbreads) and chorizo sausage. I’d like to point out that these appetizers (”achuras” or offal) came out immediately after we asked for them. The mollejas are simply the best ones I have had in my six years in Argentina. Beautifully crunchy brown on the outside and just thick enough to get the nice rich fattyness of the sweetbread texture and flavor.

The chorizo I also though was exceptional in terms of its quality. As the saying goes about seeing what goes on behind the scenes at a sausage factory… in this case it is clear that the chorizo is made of much higher quality meat products due to the consistency, color and flavor of the chorizo.

We then followed with two steak choices: filet mignon (bife de lomo) and a dry aged rib-eye (bife de chorizo).

The former was the first steak I have ever seen in Buenos Aires to have any sort of spice on it besides salt. A light coating of thyme and rosemary around the edge gave a very nice addition to one of the softest steaks I can remember. I tried cutting it with the side of my fork and it was no problem.

The latter was the epitome of steak flavor. Flavor! Wow! No sauce needed here.

All of the things you order and La Cabrera come with abundant side sauces and dishes.

The bread tray is good, not great, but that’s not why you’re there.

The service was excellent although it is clear that almost no one on the staff speaks English. My opinion, however, after learning that over 90% of the people who go there are tourists, is that GOOD! If you are visiting Argentina you should have to practice once in a while.

So the only 3 disappointing things were the following:

1. The wait. Long. However, they do give you sparkling white wine while you wait.

2. The wine list. It is very clear that all of the space has been bought because only large wineries appear on their list. The wines are perfectly fine it’s just that there is not much that is interesting.

3. The price. I would still consider La Cabrera slightly overpriced for what it is. It is certainly a fantastic experience with fantastic food, and while it’s not the absolute atrocity that Cabana Las Lilas is, it is on the spendy side.

Just as an aside, after going to La Cabrera last night, my opinion of Cabana las Lilas has dropped even further. In a comparison La Cabrera wins by a landslide.

www.anuvawines.com

With US consumers trading down in price, wineries and importers have nowhere to go but to the direct to consumer sales channel to keep finding a market.

The following statistics are reported for 2009 and projected for 2010:

• Total direct sales by U.S. wineries in 2009: $3 Billion
• Overall direct sales growth in 2009: 3%
• Tasting room sales growth in 2009: 2%
• Wine club sales decline in 2009: -5%
• Online wine sales growth in 2009: 29%
• Mail order sales decline in 2009: -14%
• Phone order sales growth in 2009: 16%
• Event sales growth in 2009: 8%
• U.S. wineries projecting consumer direct as their fastest growing sales channel in 2010: 63%

 Clearly, the data points to the fact that the reaction of the wine market to the US economic downturn has been to bolster sales via the internet, phone, tasting room and events.

www.anuvawines.com

Hundreds of hectares of Malbec are being planted by the big wineries like Catena and Trapiche and even more medium sized ones like Navarro Correas are planning on plantings this year to meet expected demand in years to come.

Malbec is taking the world by storm and the reinvestment of Argentine wineries in their own product is proof of it.

Cheers to that!

www.anuvawines.com

It still surprises me a little to know that people are unaware that there was a military dictatorship in Argentina from 1976 to 1983, a dictatorship that kidnapped and killed more that 30,000 people.

What does this have to do with wine, you say? Well, Gabriel and Monica Blanco, the owners of the Mairena winery have 4 children. Their oldest daughter was born during the dictatorship. At that time, to get your child’s birth certificate, you had to pick a name that was in an official registry of names. The Blanco’s wanted to name their daughter Mairena, but were not allowed to since that name did not appear in the official registry. Their daughter became Maria, and their wine–their fifth child–became Mairena.

We have been using the Mairena Bonarda and Reserve Malbec/Bonarda at wine tastings for some time now with great success.

www.anuvawines.com

After the not so great 2009 harvest, in terms of production (1 billion kg of grapes produced and about 12.1 million hectoliters of wine) which was the lowest production in the last 8 years, preliminary harvest numbers for 2010 for Argentina are looking stronger.

With 108.5 million kg of Malbec and 46 million kg of Torrontes harvested in 2009,  these and overall numbers are expected to climb about 7-10% for 2010.

In addition, exports are expected to rise from the 2009 numbers, even though 2009 was a record year and the world economy is still in its slump. The rise should only be a minimal percentage compared to the explosive previous years.

Patagonian vineyard owners and grape producers are also expecting large growth numbers in terms of production building on their great 2009 year. This should further the world perception of “cold weather” varieties such as Pinot Noir and Merlot which Argentina is not known for, but in my opinion could be shortly given the growth of this region.

www.anuvawines.com