The UnCorker

Hey Importers! Where’s Our Cruzat Larraine?

Few seem to be aware that Argentina has a terrific specialist in sparkling wines – Bodega Cruzat.  Think southern-hemi Schramsburg.  Carefully made, ambitious and captivating sparklers – clearly made for the world stage and intended to provide a high-quality, high-value alternative to the wines of Champagne. Good restaurants in Buenos Aires pour this stuff almost to a turn.  American expat living in Chile, Liz Caskey, blogged her recent visit to the winery here, which reminded us that we love this stuff too… and it remains our favorite-wine-we-had-all-over-Argentina-but-can’t-seem-to-get-at-home wine.   (As opposed to lugged-home-5,000 miles-only-to-find-it-widely-available-and-cheaper-here-wines.)  It’s time to raise the general level of chatter about just where the heck is this stuff in the Northern parts of the world?   A well-funded, modern producer, nice slick labels and fancy Flash winery website, decently large production runs, a romantic story and paternalistic “man of terroir” at the helm…. what’s the deal?

Maybe it’s because the winery is relatively new.  Founded in 2004- and dedicated to methode champenois – they’ve probably been more busy hand-riddling than selling & marketing up to this point.  Capacity here is small to medium sized – but not so small that you wouldn’t expect to find it in major North American wine markets – and it is a very well-funded operation (supposedly with serious Chilean money behind the venture.)  It has a real word-of-mouth thing going on in Argentina fine dining circles, but even in B.A. we didn’t see it on the shelves at wine retailers (even the fancy ones like Winery) or at the otherwise miraculously comprehensive airport duty-free shop.   Cruzat makes only sparkling wines – a Brut, a Rose, and a higher-end “Nature.”   We tasted the Brut on several occasions and were impressed – not how much like a fine Champagne it was, but on it’s own merits.  So lively & bright- with honey and hay on the nose – and a mysterious bottle bouquet that just can’t be placed.  We liked how bracing and fruit-driven the wine is, a little riper than the driest bruts, which really rounds out the mid-palatte without sacrificing complexity.  We hear it’s available in the U.S. but have seen zero evidence of this.  So if anyone knows any different, please let us know.