Wine Tasting in Argentina: Interview with Three Top Sommeliers

If you’ve chosen to visit Buenos Aires, you probably enjoy a splash of vino colapso. But don’t let a tiny thing like not speaking Spanish affect your wine tasting in Argentina, as plenty of English-speaking sommeliers are based in BA. Here, three top sommeliers talk about my favourite subject, Argentina wine:

So with your nose at the ready, it’s business time…

How Did Your Passion for Wine Begin?

Dan: I started working with food in a neighbour’s restaurant aged 14 and have cooked throughout my career. After returning to cooking school in 1991 I took a wine class, which is where it all began.
Nigel: I studied philosophy at university and had plenty of late-night study sessions over a bottle or three. I also worked at a wine store before almost getting fired for refusing to sell bad wine to a “mystery shopper”.
Andrés: I grew up around wine and still remember my grandfather adding a spoonful of sugar and a few drops of red wine to his pancakes… My palate evolved after working in catering and I started understanding how, when it came to food and wine pairing, sometimes one plus one equals more than two.

Andres Rosberg
Andres Rosberg

What Qualifications do you Have?

Andrés: I was one of the first 14 sommeliers to graduate from the Escuela Argentina de Sommeliers in 2000. Then I became a Certified Sommelier by the Court of Master Sommeliers, which is the second step – out of four – to becoming a Master Sommelier, the world’s most coveted qualification held by 170 people.
Dan: I trained at the Sommelier Society of America and am an Advanced Sommelier certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers.
Nigel: I qualified from the Escuela Argentina de Sommeliers in 2005 but that was the beginning of my serious wine education, which never ends. A great thing about the profession is that one continually learns.

What Was your Grape Epiphany?

Dan: I tasted a 1976 Lafite Rothschild – one of the best Bordeaux made. I’d never had wine that good in my life and thought: “That’s what they were talking about.”
Nigel: It hasn’t occurred yet but every time I taste a world-class wine, I love my job more.
Andrés: There have been several wines, restaurant settings, food and wine pairings and conversations with some key industry people have marked me. As Plato wrote in The Banquet, “Beauty is the splendour of truth…”

Nigel Tollerman
Nigel Tollerman

What’s the Best Part about Being a Sommelier (apart from the obvious)?

Nigel: One meets plenty of interesting people within the trade and the general public. We enjoy regular trips to wineries and wine-making regions which are always educational and fun.
Andrés: It’s always amazing the way people’s eyes light up when they are watching you open a bottle of wine for them. It’s such a privilege to make people happy.
Dan: Drinking it is the best part! But I enjoy introducing new wines to people. Many haven’t tried regional French, German or even South American wines and if they have, they’ve only tasted a commercial Argentine Malbec.

Dan Perlman
Dan Perlman

What’s your Argentine Wine Pick for 2011?

Andrés: I’m enthusiastic about Bonarda and Torrontés and more obscure cépages like Petit Verdot and Gewürztraminer.
Nigel: I’ll highlight Patagonia’s increasingly excellent Pinot Noirs, which hail from Río Negro and Neuquén provinces.
Dan: Although Torrontés is mentioned a lot, it will be interesting to see whether it maintains its popularity. Look around in a restaurant – Argentines tend to drink reds.

Finally, if you feel like walking the walk, pick up some tips from this video of two tasters trying out an Argento Pinot Grigio:

The following two tabs change content below.
Sorrel Moseley-Williams
A freelance journalist and sommelier, Brit transplant Sorrel Moseley-Williams lived in Argentina in 1998 for a year before making a permanent move in 2006. She has contributed to CNN Travel, Condé Nast Traveler and Traveller, The Guardian, Saveur, The Independent, Departures, Wallpaper*, Fodor’s and Rough Guide books among others, and has written for La Nación, U-Like It and Forbes Argentina in Spanish.
Sorrel Moseley-Williams

Latest posts by Sorrel Moseley-Williams (see all)



One response to “Wine Tasting in Argentina: Interview with Three Top Sommeliers

  1. […] Dan Perlman of Casa Saltshaker, one of the best known puertas cerradas, first brought media attention to the scene a few years back. The New York sommelier opens his Recoleta home to “fancy home cooking” and themed menus coinciding with upcoming holidays. This July I celebrated Argentina’s Independence Day with his locro with a twist. There’s something about having each course’s cultural context being introduced by a charismatic intellectual that I like. It certainly doesn’t happen in my home. […]

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *