Quest of the Two-dollar Bottle

We eat out practically every meal, of course, and at lunch and dinner we almost always get red wine. It´s the same price or cheaper than beer and soda and, of course, tastes much better.

I usually go for the cheapest bottle on the menu, which in Argentina was rarely more than $4. At the ¨best¨restaurants, the menu had two or three selections at $4 or less, and once I had a bottle for $2. At the grocery stores, you can usually find these for $1 or so less than the restaurant bottle price.

I´ve become a bit of an expert on $3 and $4 bottles of Chilean and Argentine wine and can now say with some authority that all of them are drinkable and practically all of them are forgettable.

In Argentina something I´ve found interesting is that a lot of wine is coming out from areas other than Mendoza. Mendoza is the big city (100,000) at the foot of the Andes, but Mendoza is also the state the city is in, and most wine which says ´Mendoza´ comes from somewhere in the state, which is fair sized. The state of San Juan, however, also makes a fair bit of wine, one of which I had yesterday and was very good.

A few have stood out:

Vasco Viejo, Maipu Mendoza ... house wine blend, a pleasant sipper, for $3 at Restaurante de Oriente in Bs. As.

Cruz del Sur, Santiago del Estero, San Juan ... peppy house wine, also a blend, at Cafe Harmony on Avenida de Mayo in Bs. As. Less than $3.

Colon Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 Bodegas San Juan ... OK, so I messed up on this one. We were at A Dos Manos Parilla in Tigre, waiting for the boat to Carmelo, when I ordered this one for lunch, and I read the lines wrong and though I was ordering the one beneath it. This cost a whopping $6 for a half-bottle (375 ml) and after drinking all that cheap wine the difference was noticeable instantly. This has depth and clarity and nice notes of smoke and black cherry. Good.

We´re in Carmelo, Uruguay just now and hoping to sample some of Uruguay´s reds tonight.