Alliance Wine. Alvaro as a London Sales Area Manager in January 2014.

This Spaniard is originally from Altea, a lovely Mediterranean town located between Alicante and Valencia.
Alvaros career began working in Hospitality 15 years ago in local restaurants in his native town. He polished his wine knowledge at Arzak and Martin Berasategui (3 Michelin starred restaurants) whilst doing his stage as a Sommelier.
He came to London in 2003 and started his career as a Sommelier in the UK working for 4 years in different fine dining restaurants including: The Oxo Tower by Harvey Nichols, Tom Aitkens and The Savoy Grill by Marcus Wareing. In 2006 he went into a Head Sommelier\wine-buyer role launching Theo Randall at The Hotel InterContinental and then moving in 2009 to the prestigious private members club Home House.
During his time as a Sommelier, in 2007 Alvaro proved his food & wine matching and blind tasting skills. He won the 'Sommelier Challenge' ran by the Wine & Spirits magazine and was the winner of the 'Blind Tasting Award' during the Sommelier of the year competition. In later years he also managed to get a couple of scholarships. In 2008 he was nominated to be part of the IWC Judging panel which he continues to be part of.
In 2011, Concha Y Toro approached him, and he begin his career in the "dark side", working for the Marketing Department specialising in promoting and driving distribution for their fine wines, before joining Alliance Wine as a London Sales Area Manager in January 2014.
Alvaro's passion for travel and food has led him to some interesting countries in South America, Asia as well as travelling extensively in Europe.-

GARUFIN

      Garufin is an Argentinean Restaurant located in North London and is owned by Gustavo Vazquez; Gustavo was a sommelier too and being in the same trade, we inevitably met! The restaurant is perfect for Arsenal fans as the stadium really isn’t far at all!

Gustavo opened his second restaurant called Garufin in early October 2012, along with his colleagues Ernesto Paiva & Alberto Abbate, with the view of sharing their passion and love for Argentinean food with the people of London.

                                                                      

 The Restaurant is in Holborn -8b Lamb's Conduit Passage Bloomsbury London WC1R 4RG.

The Night started with a wine tasting, showcasing all the different wines from Trivento. The name Trivento comes from the 3 famous winds in Argentina – Zonda from the south, Sudostada from the south east and the Polar from the north. 

                          

We tasted: Sparkling ‘Extra Brut’, Viognier ‘Tribu’, Trivento 2012, Torrontes ‘Blend’, Amado Sur Malbec ‘Blend’, Amado Sur, Malbec ‘Golden Reserve’, Lujan de Cuyo 2011, Syrah Golden Reserve 2008, and the Iconic wine from Trivento EOLO 2009. Most of the wines are present on the wine list.

After the tasting we moved to the dining room to have the wines with some classic dishes from Argentina.

            

As a starter we had a meat empanada with mollejas, and then we had a Rib eye steak with chunky chips and to end the night a very classic Argentine dessert- Dulce de Leche.

With the first course we had Malbec Golden Reserve 2011 from Lujan de Cuyo. This wine has been aged for 12 months in French oak and the grapes used come from 50 year old vines; an elegant wine made with low yield vine. The flavour of this Lujan de Cuyo Malbec is full of violet with a touch of wild black fruits flavours on the finish; it really work well with the empanada y mollejas. We also had Syrah Golden Reserve which everyone was happy to taste!

With the Main course we had Eolo 2009, a wine made with 100 year old vines from a very small parcel 4.5 hectares and aged for 15 month in French oak.  As most of you might know already the name Eolo comes from the Greek name for God of winds, therefore the name for Trivento Iconic wine.

Victoria Prandina is the wine maker for Eolo and every year is a challenge for her trying to get the same consistency in terms of quality.-

The end the dinner we had Dulce de leche a lovely dessert that really represents Argentina.

It was great to see everybody enjoying the wines and for me to have the opportunity to meet the wine buyers from different sites like Highbury Vintners, Wabi, you grow, Planet of grapes, grape and grain, The Haciendas, Gourmet Food Company, ignite group and few more.

The highlight of the night was the Syrah Golden 2008 and Eolo 2009.