The numbers bruited on the website for Andeluna Cellars do not inspire confidence. Almost every page tells us that the winery in Argentina’s Mendoza Valley encompasses 48,000 square feet and that it harbors a 1 million-liter tank capacity, 720,000-bottle storage capacity and room for 1,200 aging barrels. This sort of statistical braggadocio seems so transparently American, as if the numbers and size so frequently mentioned would alone guarantee quality: “My factory is bigger than your factory, so I make better thingamabobs than you do.”

Fortunately, Andeluna, owned by H. Ward Lay, son of Frito-Lay founder Herman W. Lay, turns out well-made wines that are not only attractive in several ways but represent good value. In fact, the basic level wines, selling for about $10, are phenomenal bargains. Winemaker for Andeluna is Silvio Alberto.

Consultant for Andeluna is the ubiquitous traveling enologist Michel Rolland, owner of Le Bon Pasteur and other estates in Bordeaux and an advocate of new oak and ripe, fruit-forward red wines. Surprisingly, the Bordeaux-styled red wines of Andeluna, based primarily on cabernet sauvignon, merlot and malbec, are more restrained than the products of many of the estates for whom Rolland consults. The basic level of wines ages seven months in a combination of French and American oak barrels; the Reserve wines age 12 months in 80 percent French and 20 percent American oak. The flagship red-grape blend, Pasionado, aged 18 months in new French oak.

I suppose that everyone has noticed that author Salman Rushdie looks like Michel Rolland in disguise. I mean, take away some of Rolland’s hair, add eye-glasses with black frames and a scruffy beard, et voila! Separated At Birth.
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Made in stainless steel, the Andeluna Torrontes 2008, Mendoza, presents a medium straw-gold color, a little more emphatic than most pale versions of the grape. Scents of waxy white flowers and lanolin are woven with pear and peach and a hint of spice. The texture is lovely, sensuous and almost lush but cut by startling acidity. Elements of chalk and limestone lend austerity that increases through the finish to end on a note of astringency that approaches harshness. This torrontes offers its pleasures but feels ultimately unbalanced. Good+ About $10
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No such quibbles attend the rest of these wines, however much they may vary in particularity.

The Andeluna Merlot 2007, Tupungato, Mendoza, displays a radiant deep purple color and an intense pungency of black cherry, plums, smoke, dusty minerals, cassis and black pepper. Layers of shale and granite underlie spicy oak, grainy chewy tannins and the vivid thread of a vibrant acid backbone; the wine is deep and full-bodied, and while the emphasis is on structure, black fruit flavors with a tinge of red circulate in the depths. There’s 15 percent malbec in the blend. The alcohol level is 14.8 percent. Definitely try with lamb or veal chops. Very Good+. About $10, marking Good Value.
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The Andeluna Malbec 2007, Tupungato, Mendoza, includes 11 percent cabernet sauvignon and 4 percent merlot. There’s a “lift” of sweet black fruit that smells slightly macerated, roasted and smoky. The wine is smooth, sleek and appealing, a little softer than its merlot cousin, though it certainly displays plenty of oak and tannic authority. After a few minutes in the glass, it feels freighted with plums and fraught with spice, while a sense of dusty minerality dominates the finish. The alcohol content is 13.9 percent. Very Good+. About $10, Good Value.
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Spiced cherry, with classic hints of cedar, tobacco, bell pepper and black olives characterize the nose of the Andeluna Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Tupungato, Mendoza, factors that take on touches of briers and brambles and underbrush. Intense and concentrated flavors of black cherry and black raspberry are borne by a dry, earthy, gravelly nature supplemented by polished, spicy oak and dense, chewy tannins. The wine contains 8 percent merlot and 7 percent malbec; the alcohol level is 14.2 percent. Terrific personality for the price and a natural with steak and pork chops. Excellent. About $10, Great Value.
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Now for the reserve red wines.

The Andeluna Reserve Merlot 2005, Tupungato, Mendoza, is warm and spicy, fleshy and meaty, with a tinge of tobacco leaf over shale-like minerals. This is a sturdy wine, yet supple and shapely and with impressive presence. Cassis and black raspberry flavors are permeated by lavender, licorice and potpourri, though the dominant influence is spicy, almost peppery wood. The alcohol content is 14.3 percent. Very attractive and good for grilled meat and roasts. Very Good+. About $20.
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The Andeluna Reserve Malbec 2005, Mendoza, with 5 percent cabernet sauvignon, is similar to the merlot but a little spicier and a little more exotic, with wild berry, blueberry and mulberry scents and flavors and a hint of Asian spices, as well as the typical cassis and black cherry flavors. There are also touches of fruitcake and bitter chocolate in the depths, which circulate around grainy, chewy tannins and granite-like minerals touched with a piercing sense of iodine purity. Drink through 2014 to ‘16, especially with barbecue or smoked duck. The alcohol level is 13.7 percent. Excellent. About $20, Great Value.
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The most reticent of this trio of reserve wines is the Andeluna Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Tupungato, Mendoza. This is solid, almost block-like, as well as dusty, earthy and minerally, large-framed, very spicy, mouth-filling, packed with briers and brambles and filled with oak and tannin, of which one feels more here than with the Reserve Merlot ‘05 and the Reserve Malbec ‘05. Best from 2011 to 2015 or ‘16. Until then, Very Good+. About $20.
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Composed of cabernet sauvignon (35%), merlot (35%), malbec (20%) and cabernet franc (10%), the Andeluna Grand Reserve Pasionado 2004, Mendoza, is as good a rendition of the Medoc style as any wine coming out of Argentina. This exhibits classic traits of cedar and tobacco, bell pepper and black olive, with a hint of celery seed, all these nuances blended with cassis, black cherry, dried spice and flowers. This is a wine of immense gravity and dimension, yet despite its size, it conveys a sense of delicacy and decorum, of fine detail that does not suffer from the larger sense of structure. In fact, the balance among fruit, acid, wood and tannin in the Pasionada ‘04 is exquisite. Don’t think, however, that I’m described anything winsome or wimpy; this is, actually, a tremendously dark, resonant, monumental red wine. The alcohol level is 14.1 percent. Drink through 2015 to ‘17 with roasted meat and game or hearty stews. Excellent. About $50.

The Andeluna wines are imported by San Francisco Wine Exchange, San Francisco, Cal.
These wines were submitted to me as samples for review. No additional seductions or blandishments accompanied them.

The friendly drivers of UPS and FedEx bring wine to my door, not every day of the work week but often three or four days, sometimes two or three. It varies by circumstance and weather; shipping drops off during the hottest and coldest months. Some weeks, I receive a couple of cases of wine altogether; other weeks only a few bottles. Without these samples for review, a blog like this couldn’t exist, just as newspaper and magazine book pages couldn’t exist without the copies of books sent by publishers.

On August 20, I received seven bottles of wine, one from Argentina, two from Australia, one from California and three from Oregon. Prices ranged from 8 to $105. Contemplating these wines and the enormous variety and variation they representeded, I thought, “Eureka! Here’s an interesting post for BTYH, reviews of the wines I received on a single day, whatever their origin or cost.”

The order is from cheapest to most expensive.
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Black Swan Wines, which carry a South Eastern Australia designation, are imported to the U.S. and bottled by Barossa Valley Importers in Modesto, Cal., the mention of the town of Modesto telling us that Black Swans are Gallo wines. I received two from an extensive roster, the Shiraz 2008 and the Riesling 2008. Of this pair, the Riesling ‘08 is the Bargain.
Not that I minded the Black Swan Shiraz ‘08. Produced in 230,000 cases, it offers the definite character of a mass-produced wine, that is, one feels it as a “red wine” rather than as anything definably shiraz-like. Its mildly spicy black fruit scents and flavors are passably decent and it offers a pleasing texture, and if we were at a party and someone handed me a glass (or plastic cup, more likely) of this wine, I wouldn’t turn to LL and raise an eyebrow too noticeably. In fact, that setting would be this wine’s highest purpose, as a red vinous beverage to be knocked back when dozens of people are thwacked by loud music and have to shout in each others’ ears to be heard and the whole situation borders on the mindless. Fun!

The Black Swan Riesling ‘08, on the other hand, makes a real claim to varietal character. The wine is fresh and clean, as we would hope, and displays sufficient hints of peach, pear and lychee highlighted by the grape’s requisite note of petrol (you may call it rubber eraser) that when I swirled, sniffed and sipped, I thought, “Well, shut my mouth, this is riesling,” not, I hasten to say, riesling of great intensity and purport, but certainly more than merely decent. The texture niftily balances crisp acidity with moderate lushness, and the finish brings in spice and limestone.

I rate the Shiraz as Good and the Riesling as Very Good. Each about $8.
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Don Miguel Gascon is an actual winery, founded in 1884, with an actual winemaker, Ernesto Bajda. This, too, is imported by Gallo, though unlike the Black Swan wines, Gascon Malbec 2008 is made, aged and bottled in its home, the Mendoza region of Argentina. This is a great wine for the price; I have used several previous vintages as Wine of the Week.

Made from 100 percent malbec grapes and aged seven months in a combination of French and American oak barrels, Gascon Malbec 2008 is a dark ruby-purple color with a violet rim (that’s when you tilt the glass and look through the edge of the wine to reveal all the hues); the bouquet bursts with scents of ripe blueberry and blackberry, spicy oak and briery, brambly elements. Black fruit flavors are permeated by plum dust, hints of coffee and tobacco, a bit of cedar; the texture is dense and chewy, and though the wine is robust (and a little exotic), tannins and oak influence are kept to sensible supporting roles. We drank this one night with grilled pork chops, and it was a hit. Very Good+. About $14, Good Value.
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The words no producer wants to read in a review are “disappointed” and “I liked the less expensive wine more than the expensive one.” Alas, that is what I must write today regarding three pinot noirs from Willamette Valley Vineyards.

The one I liked best, the one that seemed purest, most intense and unsullied is the Willamette Valley Vineyards Whole Cluster Fermented Pinot Noir 2008. “Whole Cluster” means that the freshly picked and sorted grapes are placed, uncrushed, in stainless steel containers that contain carbon dioxide gas, sprayed with yeast and then sealed in. As fermentation slowly occurs, the weight of the grapes on top begins gently to crush the grapes below, releasing the juice. The result, as in this example, is urgent freshness and elixir-like fruitiness, first grapey and then redolent of black and red cherries and mulberries. In the mouth, this wine dips a delicate toe into the dark waters of spice and macerated black fruits; a few minutes in the glass manifest something slightly leafy, a little mossy and earthy. The texture is so satiny as to be almost viscous, but vibrant acidity cuts a swath. Utterly charming and delicious. Drink now through 2011. Very Good+. About $19.

I loved the bouquet of the Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir 2007. A welter of cranberry, black cherry and sassafras, lilac and baking spice, it would easily seduce the most jaded nose. When you taste the wine, however, you find that touch of brown sugar and emphatic spice that too often characterizes West Coast pinot noirs. This element coasts on a tide of burly oak, and together they swamp the wine’s fruit, so that the finish devolves to wood and wood’s austerity. Very good. About $25.

My mantra is “If a wine smells like wood and tastes like woody, it’s too damned woody.” That’s my reaction to the Willamette Valley Vineyards Elton Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007. Yes, ‘07 should turn out to be a fine year for Oregon, and, yes, the Elton Vineyard is highly respected, but vintages and vineyards matter little if a wine is over-manipulated in the winery. At first glance, one might think that the oak regimen for the wine was perfectly balanced, 14 months in French barrels, 20 percent new, but there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip, and for my palate the wine was insufferably oaky. I spent half an hour or so with this glass, swirling, sniffing, sipping, waiting for some nuance, some detail to emerge, but those pleasurable factors seemed not to have a chance. 410 cases. Perhaps a few years aging will make a difference, but I don’t have much hope. About $45.
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Here’s the story: 14 years ago, young Will Jarvis, son of the owners of Jarvis Winery, had an 8th grade science project. It seemed natural to make red wine, for which he had to receive permission and made a two-gallon barre, illustrating the whole process. Ten years later, he and his parents tried the wine and thought it was so good that it inspired the present wine, a first release of Jarvis “Will Jarvis Science Project” Cabernet Franc 2007, Napa Valley. No, readers, this is not the original wine, but it’s certainly one of the best cabernet franc wines to be made in California.

The color is dark ruby-purple, almost black. The first impression is of immense minerality, like shoals of granite and shale, but the wine is immensely fruit-endowed too, bursting with scents and flavors of spiced and macerated blueberries and black currant jam. The wine exhibits tremendous heft and substance, breadth and depth, but it’s neither heavy nor obvious; it wears its size stylishly, legitimately. As moments elapse, the wine unfolds layers of smoke and charcoal, touches of loam and burning leaves, deeper hints of violets and tar. When you take a sip, it’s not only mouth-filling but encompassing. Yes, quite a wine. It was in all new French oak, but only for nine months; how reasonable is that? 391 cases. Best from 2010 through 2015 or ‘17. Excellent. About — ouch! — $105.
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Here it is, friends, the ultimate cheese toast, the baroque-est of the baroque, the heartiest of the hearty, the manliest of men. What you have here are pieces of FK’s homemade bread slathered with another of our new favorite condiments, Bone Suckin’ Mustard — motto: “We’re Talkin’ Serious” — distributed by Ford’s Foods in Raleigh, N.C.; topped with diced tasso, a ham that directs its feet to the spicy side of the street; further topped with a few slices of Roma tomato. Rummaging through the fridge, I found, in a box of take-out whatever, some slivers of roasted red and yellow pepper, which I requisitioned. I shaved cheddar cheese, Gruyere, a mystery cheese from which the label had fled, and after arranging those, of course I grated some Parmesan. Finally, a dusting of our other new favorite condiment, Urfa Pepper from Turkey. More about that anon.* Run those babies under the broiler until the cheese gets all melty and crusty. Woo-hoo, readers, these cheese toasts were flat-out, freakin’ great!

The wine? It certainly needed to be hearty and manly to match this over-the-top version of cheese toast, so I chose the Diseño Malbec 2007, from Argentina’s Mendoza region. The nose is all briers and brambles, roots and moss, earth and minerals, with hints of blackberry, black currant and wild berry. It’s tremendously spicy, packed with dried fruit, fruit cake, oolong tea and orange zest, with touches of intense and concentrated black fruit flavors. Chewy tannins and polished oak lend framing and foundation. A good choice with burgers and steaks and full-flavored red sauce pastas — as well as Terminator Supreme cheese toast. Very Good. About $13, Good Value. I have seen this wine discounted as low as $9, though at winechateau.com, the “regular” price is listed as $18.89, but the “sale” price is $13.79. Caveat emptor, indeed!
Imported by International Cellars, Gonzales, Cal.

*Urfa biber is a red pepper grown around the ancient city of Urfa in southeast Turkey. Almost black in color, the peppers are sun-dried during the day and tightly wrapped and sweated at night to concentrate the deep, earthy, meaty, raisiny flavor. Urfa pepper flakes are spicy hot — say a bit hotter than medium –but more intense than merely mouth-burning. We got out little jar from Zingerman’s mail order website and we use the stuff on everything, from cheese toast to tuna.

On Oscar Day we cooked a ribollita from the recently released Williams-Sonoma Cookbook: The Essential Recipe Collection for Today’s Home Cook (Free Press, $34.95), a terrific cookbook with lots of pictures. Ribolitta is a purely vegetarian Italian soup whose broth, in this recipe, is made from cannellini beans that are simmered with garlic and sage and then pureed. The vegetables are onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, Savoy cabbage, Swiss chard and lacinato kale and crushed tomatoes. You toast or grill slices of rustic bread, place them in the bottoms of wide bowls and ladle the soup over the bread. Yikes, this is seriously good, a really hearty winter dish, or end of winter.

We ate this marvelous concoction while we watched the Oscar ceremonies, a rather depressing, even degrading display of chutzpah, sentimentality, bad writing and cloying spectacle, but there we were. We had seen few of the contending movies — we wait for DVDs and pizza night — but you read so much about these matters in The New York Times and other newspapers and magazines that you might as well have seen them.

Anyway, the true point here is the wine we drank with the ribollita, the Nieto Senetiner Reserva Torrontes 2008, from Argentina’s Mendoza region; the winery was founded in 1888. I’ll go out on a limb and assert that this is the best example of torrontes I have tasted, and not because it’s pumped up with oak — the way poor gruner veltliners are now in Austria, so they feel like bad chardonnays and cost $50 — ; no, this all stainless steel torrontes is allowed to express itself eloquently without the bolstering of wood. Aromas of green grapes, orange zest, roasted lemon and jasmine tantalize the nose. In the mouth, the wine offers lovely balance between bright acidity and an almost lush texture; to the citrus element is added a note of peach, a hint of pineapple and a touch, on the finish, of grapefruit and a smidgeon of bracing grapefruit bitterness. The finish also brings in a tide of minerality, a scintillating element that rounds everything off nicely. Very Good+. I paid $14 for the wine, but it can be found around the country as low as $10.

Imported by Winebow, Inc., New York.

Gratuitous images of Penelope Cruz from cinenaisdope.com.

… and neither can I, not, my friends, because it’s so freaking expensive — about $64 — but because only 56 cases were made. It happens to be the Vina Alicia Syrah 2003, and it is, I promise, one of the best, no, one of the most astonishing syrah wines I have ever encountered, a wine of such piercing purity and intensity, a wine that so impeccably and effortlessly balances power and elegance that the glass or two I had left me awe-struck and humbled.

“Oh great, F.K., oh thanks, F.K., oh tiddly-winks to you, F.K.,” you’re saying, “for mentioning this fabulous and unattainable wine, which you got to taste and we didn’t.”

Well, yeah, O.K., sorry, but the point is that the Vina Alicia Syrah 2003 came not from France’s northern Rhone Valley or Australia’s Barossa, which we might expect, but from Argentina, from Mendoza’s chilly, arid Lujan de Cuyo region in the Andean foothills. If there was ever any question about the ability of Argentina’s vineyards and wine-makers to produce wines that could compete with the best in the world — and I have thought that the country’s high-priced wines tended to be more ambitious than accomplished — this wine lays all doubts to rest. The best we can do, I suppose, is hope that Vina Alicia, which also produces small quantities of malbec, petit verdot and nebbiolo, finds it in its heart to increase production just a little.

In the meanwhile, enjoy these Argentine wines that also represent the top of their class and price range.

My first note on the Luigi Bosca Reserva Malbec 2003 — also from Lujan de Cuyo — was “Wow!” Made from vines averaging 75 years old and aged in a combination of new and used French oak, this is a wonderfully layered malbec, deeply fitted with dimension and detail, dense and chewy, flush with dusty tannins but so lovely, so seductive, intensely floral and minerally simultaneously and packed with succulent black fruit flavors tamed by a rigorous finish. Bring on a rib-eye steak, please, grilled over hickory coals to rosy-pink medium rare, charred and crusty with salt and black pepper. Yikes! The price: About $23.

And, talk about an over-achiever — and a Bargain of the Decade — the Tittarelli Reserva Torrontes 2006, Tierra de Cuyo, Mendoza, proves that the grape doesn’t have to produce crisp, floral little quaffers, charming though such wines may be. This model sees no oak but spends 45 days in stainless steel resting on the lees — the residue of spent yeast cells — to produce amazing character for the grape. This wine is bone-dry but bursts with jasmine and honeysuckle, peach, pear and mango and whole spice-boxes of exotica, all this wrapped in a texture and structure that perfectly balance lushness with chiming acid. Don’t miss this one, and you don’t have to at about $13.

This trio of wines from Mendoza, Argentina, is brought into the United States — and only 17 states, so you may have to use some not-so-gentle persuasion on your local retailers and wholesale distributors — by William-Harrison Imports, Manassas, Va. Visit http://whimports.com