“Have a margarita on me!” If I had a couple of Pesos for every time someone said that to us before our trip to Playa del Carmen, I’d have enough to buy one of those frosty drinks. But since we’re wine drinkers, we set our sites on catching up with the town’s best wine bars not tequilerias. We’ve been coming to Playa for nearly a decade and with each visit we find many more restaurants and bars with interesting wine offerings.

Thinking back to our first trip to Playa always brings a smile. At an Italian restaurant we asked, perhaps naively, to see the wine list. The waiter patiently informed us he had vino blanco and vino tinto—which did we want?  Catching on, we asked for the tinto. We’re still not sure what red wine we drank that day, but it arrived well chilled! 

How times have changed.  You can find decent wines by the glass at most tourist restaurants in Playa del Carmen and exceptional wine at several top spots.  (Of course, we always drink Mexican beer with the fantastic local grouper, shrimp tacos, and fish soup.) You can even buy excellent Mexican wine from Baja California at the Mega supermarket. Over four days in this beautiful, vibrant city we enjoyed wine from Argentina, Italy, and Mexico.  Here’s a sampler.

Cut to the Chase – What to Drink
•    Santa Julia Fuzion Tempranillo-Malbec 2007 (Mendoza)    $15
•    Trivento Shiraz-Malbec 2006 (Mendoza)                           $15
•    Monte Xanic Cabernet-Merlot 2004 (Baja California)         $23
•    Alessandro Speri, Prodigo, Malbec 2004 (Mendoza)            $23


Mandarina Café
On our first night we ducked in to the wine bar at the Mandarina Café on Fifth Avenue for some prime people watching. Quinta Avenida is the hub of Playa del Carmen, a wide pedestrian promenade jam-packed with restaurants, shops, tequilerias, cafés, and hawkers selling snorkeling, hair braiding, and trips to Tulum. While Mandarina’s food is indifferent (except for the crisp bread sticks and pâté the waiter brought us gratis) its wine bar offers comfy couches and a front row view of the street action.

Finca el Portillo Malbec/Tempranillo 2006 (Bodegas Salentein, Argentina)
We are most familiar with Malbec from the Mendoza region. The grapes for this silky blend come from the Upper Valley of the Uco, 70 miles south of Mendoza at the foot of the Andes.  Gary noted blueberries and boysenberry on the nose, followed up by flavors of smoky cedar and caramelized cherries on the palate, and a cocoa finish.

Gary found this a pleasing wine to sip before dinner, perhaps on a par with the Alamos Malbecbut lacking the complexity of the Catena(both of which we reviewed in an earlier post.)
 

Finca el Portillo Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (Bodegas Salentein, Argentina))
Lisa selected a light white from the save vintner to drink while checking out the Playa scene.  Unfortunately, this blend lacked the strengths of either varietal; in fact, it lacked much of anything—thin and almost flavorless. 


Restaurante Giallo Limone
When we fell in love with Playa a decade ago, “downtown” for tourists covered 8-10 blocks of Quinta Avenida. Stray a few blocks off 5th and you found locals happily living their lives with minimal tourist interaction. Today, tourism has gobbled up wide swaths of Playa del Carmen—for better or worse. Nowhere is that more evident than the northern extension of 5th at least one mile…and still going.  Settled largely by European expats, this hopping new section of Quinta Avenida is fondly called “The North End,” just as Boston’s Italian section is known.

On our last evening this visit we strolled into the North End to Giallo Limone for a glass of vino before dinner. With a light rain starting to come down we grabbed a high-top table for two just inside the café. We chatted up the owner, Massimo, who generously brought us a complimentary order of bruschetta to pair with our wine.

Dragani Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2005
One of Gary’s favorite varietals, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is a classic pizza/pasta wine. The Dragani held true to form – deep ruby color, earthy nose, plenty of cherries, and a dry, smooth finish.

Marco Maci Chiaro Di Luna Salento Bianco
This Chardonnay from the Salento area of Apulia left Lisa cold. Perhaps Marco Maci, which is better known for its reds, produces a Chard because it has to, not because its heart is in it.


Di Vino
At first blush Di Vino is everything we try to avoid when in Playa del Carmen…directly on 5th in the high-rent district, decidedly non-Mexican vibe, and mostly European clientèle with not a local in sight (except serving the oh so beautiful people.)  But it sucked us in with its hip ambiance and 27-page wine list. And then there was Alessandro (Aless to his friends.)  Di Vino’s charming and knowledgeable Sommelier, Aless moved to Playa from Italy a few months back to handle wine buying for the owner’s several local properties.

Aless selected two wines for us and settled in for a long chat about Italian vs. French wine (guess which he finds superior,) Mexico vs. Italy, and the joys of discovering new varietals and wine regions.
 

Alessandro Speri, Prodigo, Malbec 2004 (Mendoza)
Speri is a fifth generation Milanese winemaker who moved to Argentina in the early 1990’s to join the burgeoning Mendoza expat community. Not yet “Malbec’d out,” Gary jumped at Aless’s recommendation to try the Speri.  He noted a deep berry nose, with some oak and an elegant balance of fruit and acidity. Giving it a VinoDuo rave of “exceptional,” Gary found the Malbec an “excellent food wine for northern Italian fare.” 


Costa di Giulia Michele Satta 2004 (Tuscany)
Tuscany is better known for its reds, but our new best friend Aless swore Lisa would swoon for this white blend (65% Vermentino, 35% Sauvignon Blanc.). Vermentino was new to us; it’s a traditional Mediterranean varietal typically found in Sardinia, Corsica, and Northern Italy. Vermentino shares many characteristics with Sauvignon Blanc: pale straw color, crisp acid, and a pronounced minerality (sans grass, though.) The Costa di Giulia blend did not live up to Aless’ billing – Lisa found it a bit harsh for her taste. 

For those of you keeping score, that’s three White duds for Lisa.  Will she ever give up and go over to the Red side for good?

El 10 Comida Argentina
After three nights of Mexican fare, Gary was hankering for a pizza. There’s plenty to choose from in Playa, from Domino’s to the gourmet variety.  We chose an oddly hybrid restaurant from Argentina to get our pizza fix; a place that touts both Argentine beef and flatbread pizza. El 10 Comida Argentina is located in the North End, not far from Giallo Limone. An NHL ice  hockey game was playing at the far TV and techno-pop droned from the speakers.  If you’re looking for atmosphere, El 10 is a 5; the food and drink definitely get top billing here.

The pizza was a revelation (this coming from Gary, whose hand-made pizza is the talk of the family.) Formed into a long (20”) thin oblong and served on a slab of charred wood from the charcoal-fired grill, the pie had a crispy thin crust, was perfectly seasoned, and topped with mozzarella, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, and onions.

To complement the pizza we selected two Malbec blends, both served a bit too cold.

Santa Julia Fuzion Tempranillo-Malbec 2007 (Mendoza)
Inky black and smooth as silk, this blend is 70% Tempranillo, 30% Malbec. Gary and Lisa swapped sips back and forth with the Shiraz-Malbec and enjoyed both with equal gusto. 
Trivento Shiraz-Malbec 2006 (Mendoza)
The Trivento, an equal blend of Syrah and Malbec, had more complexity than the Santa Julia. Loads of blackberry and raspberry flavor, with hints of tobacco and leather.  It was earthier than the Tempranillo-Malbec, with a bold finish.


From the Wine Shop at Mega
Boston has Stop and Shop.  The West Coast has Safeway.  For food shopping in Mexico, it’s the Mega.  We’ve spent many a happy afternoon shopping for naranjas, queso, and vino at the Mega in San Jose del Cabo and Playa. This year we walked to the Mega from Mosquito Blue in search of Mexican wine.  In particular we were on the hunt for two wines from Monte Xanic, which we had tasted during our trip to Scottsdale last spring.

Monte Xanic Chenin Colombard 2006 Valle de Guadalupe
We sipped this light, refreshing white by the Mosquito Blue pool on Lisa’s 50th birthday. Feet dangling in the cool water we toasted the special day and made our dinner plans. Another tough afternoon in Playa.

Oh, and the wine…it’s 95% Chenin Blanc, 5% Columbard. Citrus floral nose. Grapefruit and honeydew melo notes, with a clean finish. Great deck wine when there’s no pool available.


Monte Xanic Cabernet Sauvignon y Merlot
One of the great things about meeting Alessandro at Di Vino was his willingness to try the Mexican wine we brought to dinner the next night. He even waived the corkage fee—a real mentsch, as they say in Italy.  We’re not sure he really liked it, but he was gracious.

The Cab-Merlot blend (with a bit of Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec thrown in) is a smooth, rich wine with intense flavors of fruit and a hint of chocolate.  It was the perfect accompaniment to Lisa’s New Zealand T-bone of lamb with wild berries sauce, lentils vegetables and polenta and Gary’s Beef Filet in gorgonzola cheese cream sauce, shallot conf it, and black truffled mashed potatoes.