Sottano - An Argentine Cab

Mr. Cool and I are off in the morning to head up to Okanagan wine country for the Half Corked Half Marathon. So, it's a night for packing and a final opportunity for some last minute training - of the wine drinking variety, of course. I haven't even pretended to try and run for the last couple of weeks. I'm going to rely on the fact that this is a "fun run" and that a healthy percentage of participants will be walking for a substantial part of the race anyhow.

For those last sips of training fluids, I figured "why not go with the Sottano?" Boo and I discovered Sottano while on a road trip in Argentina and Cool and I were about to embark on another road trip - although decidedly shorter in time and distance.

1614.  2006 Sottano Cabernet Sauvignon (Mendoza - Argentina)

Bodega Sottano is currently seeing the fourth generation of the Sottano family involved in the growing of grapes and making of wine in Mendoza. Don Fioravante Sottano migrated from the Veneto region of Italy to the Argentine countryside in 1890; however, it's this current generation - of three brothers - that has over-seen the completion and opening of a new winery in 2005.

It was this new winery that Boo and I visited during or stay in Mendoza. I recall it as being one of our shorter visits but also one where the winery staff was ever so laid back and where they'd build a neat glass floor insert that provided a view down into the cellar from the tasting room.

Facing the draconian restrictions of bringing wine back into Canada - and much to our dismay - we only picked up one bottle of Sottano wine when we were actually in Argentina. It was not this Cab Sauv. Rather, I walked into one of the private wine shops in Vancouver a few months after our return and, shockingly, saw the bottle there. I've seen a few Sottano wines in town since that time and they are usually this "entry" level label. They also produce a Reserve label and an "icon" wine, a premium Malbec called Judas.

The home vineyards surrounding the winery are planted with primarily Malbec and Cab Sauv. So, the odds are good that we were within walking distance of the vines used in making this Cab (albeit we didn't arrive at the winery until well after this vintage had been bottled and readied for the market). I can't say that about many of the wines we drink - particularly not the ones from outside BC.

I'm not so sure that Mr. Cool and I will want our wine to be this big during the Half Corked run. Something tells me that the heat of the day might dictate something a little lighter. That doesn't mean that a whole lot of fruit and body doesn't work as a training wine though. If handling the Cab isn't causing problems now, I'm pretty sure that all this training is doing some good after all.

I say, "Bring on the race."