It’s a non-painful affliction, apart from a certain embarrassment, but I am sure I wasn’t the only one suffering from Malbec finger last week. The condition results from an over-indulgence in tasting Argentinean wines, not solely Malbec, but Tannat, Cabernet and so on. The symptoms are simple – red stained fingers and I wasn’t even pouring!

The event, held in the Lord’s Cricket ground pod was a side show to the annual Argentinean trade tasting, a gathering of loyal customers and faithful wine bloggers, hosted by Naked Wines. They were after a new wine to list and winemaker to support with a guaranteed £50,000 order. There were a lot of wines to taste.

A narrowing of the running list resulted in four wines from our table (there were five or six other tables) being put forward to the second taste off. Interestingly several of our selection plus from another table were from one producer…

One wine really stood out – I even tweeted about it on the day – a blended wine, Dramatis Personae 2010 from Bodegas Argenceres [Adegga / Snooth. Amazing value at, as we later discovered, about £7 and one of the cheapest wines in the room!

It so very nearly made it to the Naked Wines list. Just pipped in a vote off by Oscar Biondolillo's Aguma Reserva Tannat 2009 [Adegga / Snooth]. Looking for another bout of the red stained finger I ordered six bottles as soon as it appeared on the Naked Wines Website, good thing I did it then too as the wine has now sold out.

While I’m not party to the machinations of the buying team I do hope that the other top runners, not only the second placed wineand more wines from the Biondolillo stable make it to Naked Wines too.

Below a few photographs, not mine I should add but taken by the talented Richard Toplis, from the day.

Over 40 Naked customers gathered in London to spend £50,000 of YOUR money.
Finding the best unknown winemaker is like finding a needle in a haystack. After 125 wines, 3 rounds, blackened Archangel teeth and puffy red eyes, there could only be ONE winner. It’s official, Oscar Biondilillo is the first Naked Wines Rising Star gold medal winner. His winning wine, Aguma Tannat Reserva 2009, is mouth-wateringly monstrous. Silky, powerful and perfumed, it was without doubt the BEST wine in the room.”