International winemaker Paul Hobbs has had quite an adventure establishing Viña Cobos in Argentina over the past 25 years: A partially blind man has driven him along treacherous mountainside roads; he found his future winery partners on a local bus to Mendoza; he’s faced the region’s battering hailstorms. Hobbs shared these stories and more while leading a three-wine mini-vertical tasting at the 2024 New York Wine Experience.
Renowned for his California wines, Hobbs has presented at the event in the past, but this year, he made history: He presented the first multi-vintage, multi-cuvée tasting of Argentine wine, and of Malbec, on the main stage, according to Wine Spectator senior editor and Argentina taster Aaron Romano. Going back to the 2014 vintage, the lineup showcased Hobbs’ mastery of the Malbec grape. “This is a tremendous opportunity for Argentina and for me,” Hobbs told the audience.
After a sidetracked trip to Chile brought him to Argentina’s Mendoza region in 1988, Hobbs began working with Nicólas Catena of Catena Zapata to produce Chardonnay (while simultaneously establishing his namesake winery in Sonoma). For about 40 years prior, Argentina had been an economically isolationist country, meaning much of its winemaking equipment was comparatively ancient. “Stuff that you would not even imagine would appear in a French museum,” Hobbs quipped, explaining the obstacles they faced. “I had to make wine [in] the most primitive way, and yet we made a wine that came in at a very high level of quality.”
Making a Malbec Icon
During Catena’s production, Hobbs kept eyeing old Malbec vines, thinking it would be interesting to work with that variety. This was a few years before Malbec would become synonymous with Argentina on the international market. Focusing his attention on the grape, Hobbs released his first vintage of Viña Cobos in 1999. “The big question facing us [involved] two key factors: ageability and the wine’s ability to reflect the nuances in terroir,” said Hobbs, who wondered, at that time, if Malbec was capable of that expressiveness. “That would be an indicator of true nobility … I really felt that I should focus on just showcasing the true terroir of the grape without outside influence.”
The three wines poured at the Wine Experience demonstrated that potential, said Romano, noting there’s been a strong movement toward more terroir–driven bottlings in Mendoza over the past decade. Hobbs’ more “Burgundian” style of vinification (whole-cluster, open-top fermentation) came through: According to Romano, the youngest wine tasted, the Viña Cobos Malbec Mendoza Cobos 2021 (95 points), was fresh with fine-structured tannins and notes of tea leaves and cherries. The two others (both tasted non-blind in a vertical tasting with Hobbs this spring), the Malbec Mendoza Cobos 2018 (96) and Perdriel Cobos Marchiori Vineyard Block C2 2014 (94)—a previous iteration of the same label—demonstrated round, enveloping tannins with even more room to age.
“What we want to do today is refine what we’re already doing. A lot of people don’t think that South America has a truly fine wine region,” said Hobbs. “We want to help promote the great work and the great terroir of Mendoza.”
