Wines of Mendoza - Twitter Taste ... not so Live?

So the folks over at Twitter Taste Live and Wines of Argentina are hosting an entire month of tasty wines. Getting "together" in small groups of oeno-freaks and producers, the aim is to have a small round table discussion online while tasting and promoting the wines via Twitter.

Last night was the Mendoza tasting and I got to take part - the (free) wines arrived on time, I acquired the appropriate cheeses, polished up my glasses, and logged in. Much to the group's chagrin Twitter was having a massive failure, and it was nearly impossible to have any sort of dialog. However, having popped all the corks in anticipation for the group tasting, I soldiered on and tasted all six on my own!

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Sparkling wines for more than just holidays & special occasions

Recently I attended "Counter Culture: Fizz-tivity," a wine and food pairing dinner at my local Whole Foods Market. Every month these dinners are held at the Osteria, a free standing cafe within the specialty foods department which serves fresh prepared foods to customers at a long, curved counter - thus the event name. December was all about sparkling wines getting everyone well prepared for the holidays.

Sparkling wine is an interesting segment of the wine world. Many of us think of sparkling wine as something only for special occasions - anniversaries and New Years Eve. Unfortunately that means that everyone only gets to enjoy it twice, maybe three times a year. Isn't that just utterly disappointing? Luckily there are many different styles and types of sparkling wines to suit any occasion and this dinner was a perfect opportunity to explore them.

We started with a cheese course consisting of Robiola, a sheep and cow's milk soft cheese, served with dried currants, fresh raspberries, and almonds. Paired to this was a special beverage called Deus Brut de Flandres Cuvée Prestige 2006. Surprisingly not a wine at all, this was a specialty Belgian Ale which is unique in that it follows the Traditional method for making Champagne. This barley ale was a light straw color with aromas of ripened pear and honey. The pairing with the cheese board was great, and I can understand why they market this as "the Dom Perignon of beer." Check out the brewer's lively website here: Brewery Bosteels

After our cheese and Belgian/French ale we transitioned to a more Mediterranean course with Presto Prosecco Brut ($10.99) served with a zippy roasted tomato fondue. Prosecco is an Italian white variety and is used to make really fun sparkling wines. The Presto was gold in color and had fresh aromas including citrus, yellow apple, and pear. A dry wine with similar flavors it offered nice crisp acidity which simultaneously paired very well with the acid from the tomatoes and cleansed the creaminess of the cheese from my palate. For the price this is a great wine to serve to friends. It's mild-mannered and easy to drink - definitely a great everyday bubbly to consider.

Next up on to French Champagne with Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Extrem' ($39.99) paired with pan seared pierogies with spinach, fontal, and roasted pear. Sadly the first two bottles we opened were corked but the third was in much better quality. Nothing you can do, right? I'd say create a synthetic Champagne cork but the French would never go for it. Golden in color with aromas of citrus, cooked apple, almond, and a soft yeastiness. The best match from our dish with this Chardonnay was the poached pear, making a perfect compliment to the lemon and citrus flavors. This makes for a great sparkling wine to pair with food.

An American-made rosé accompanied the next course, Gruet Brut Rosé ($17.99) made by Gruet Winery in New Mexico. Clear and with a soft salmony pink, this wine boasted mostly red fruit aromas like raspberry and cranberry with softer fragrances of apple and grapefruit. As expected from the nose I wasn't disappointed by the crisp acidity from this wine. More of the red fruits and a soft citrus made this Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blend very refreshing. The paired dish offered grilled swordfish, winter greens, root vegetables, and a blood orange reduction. Very, very cool! This was probably the best pairing of the entire dinner.

Our fifth wine was another French Champagne from Bouzy, Jean Vesselle Oeil de Perdrix ($42.99). This was paired with chicken and boursin roulade, proscuitto, ratatouille crepe and reduced cream. The Oeil de Perdrix is a blanc de noir (white from black) Champagne made entirely from Pinot Noir grapes, so it has a very pleasant peach color. Aromas were concentrated around tart stone fruit (peach, apricot), apple, citrus and raspberry. It also had a distinct minerality, offering a nice sense of terroir. The rich ratatouille crepe and reduced cream stood up well to the crisp acidity, full body, and refreshing citrus on the palate. This was my second favorite pairing of the evening.

The final course of walnut encrusted lamb chops with green lentils, beet, and feta salad was paired by the intriguing Australian Shingleback Black Bubbles Sparkling Shiraz ($24.99). Deep purple ruby with very small bubbles made for one of the more interesting sparkling wines I've seen. The aromas were reminiscent of any other big Aussie Shiraz - black cherry, plum, licorice, and spice. Plum also dominated the palate and was a great match to the lamb and lentils. More rich flavors of chocolate and coffee lingered on the finish. For being named after an animal also known as a skink I always enjoy the wines Shingleback makes.

Completing our dinner we were served a decadent double chocolate cake with espresso mousse and cherry compote. What kind of sparkling wine would you possibly pair with this to make it better than it already is? Cinzano Brachetto D'Aqui DOCG ($19.99), a sweet sparkling wine from northern Italy. Made from the Brachetto grape - known also as Braquet in France - this wine is a bright pomegranate red in color and displayed aromas of cherry and strawberry, as well as honeyed and floral notes. All these followed through to the palate and made a remarkably good pairing with the chocolate, espresso, and cherry dessert.

This Counter Culture was a truly delightful experience and I was so pleased to be able to try so many different types of sparkling wines. In an unabashed plug for Whole Foods, if you're local and interested in coming to one of the dinners just call the store and ask for someone in the specialty department. Cost is usually about $45 and is entirely worth the amazing food and wine that is served - and is a great reason to have dinner cooked and served to you! A huge thank you to wine specialist Maggie Harrison and chef Eric Colby for making a great evening for all of us attending.

So when you go out to grab your bottle of bubbles to celebrate the beginning of 2009 check out some of the others sitting there on the shelf. Nothing needs to be expensive - just ask for a recommendation and you should be able to find some great sparkling wines for everyday enjoyment.

Cheers!

avoiding winter with south american reds

High Note Elevated Malbec (2007)
Vista del Sur Winery
Malbec
Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina

Ohio's weather is never predictable this time of year. Recently we've had temperatures dipping into the 40s and 30s. In my living room I can clearly see my breath mere inches from my face. Maybe it's because we're resilient to the cold - or maybe just cheap and stubborn - but we've not yet turned on the heat and until the snow sticks I refuse to accept fall's inevitable end.

In an effort to fend off the cold I turned to High Note, an Argentinian Malbec produced by Vista del Sur winery near Mendoza. Supporting the tag line that "Altitude is everything," I'm assured that the vines used for this wine are grown somewhere between 3,700 and 5,000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. With many primo growing regions butting right up to this massive range, producers are famous for boasting about how high up their grapes are grown. Marketing at its best.

While High Note is not 100% Malbec, Argentina's poster-grape does make up 83% of the blend. The other 17 is divided between Cabernet Sauvignon (8), Cabernet Franc (6), and Petit Verdot (3). Malbec, having found its way from Europe and the minor leagues of Bordeaux blends, has become an undeniable star in South American wine making. All those sun-filled days beef up the fruity characteristics and give Malbec a more supple body much earlier than it's counterpart in Cahors.

Appearance: The High Note was a deep ruby-violet, leaving a good amount of color on the sides of my glass - warm climate indicator for sure! Text was not legible through the wine.

Nose: Clean nose with a slightly more than medium intensity, with floral and red fruit being the first aromas to register. Very youthful and fruity, the raspberry and red cherry stood out from everything else as I got deeper into my glass. Lighter aromas included a violet or perfumed fragrance (from the PV perhaps), spice (black pepper), and chocolate.

Palate: Dry with a medium to full body. Fruity tannins that seemed tight, but will probably loosen up with time. Raspberry, blackberry, and pepper dominate, backed by chocolate from the nose. Lighter flavors of coffee and oak lingered on the finish.

The marker on the map below is an approximation of where the Uco Valley is located. Surrounding (terrain view) and to the west you can see the Andes, and beyond them the narrow country of Chile, popular for its own French variety, Carménère, which until recently was widely mistaken for Merlot - another feat in marketing genius for a later post.


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With a knack for full-bodied reds, Argentina currently holds the number 5 spot for wine-production (just after the US and Europe's "Big Three": Italy, France, and Spain). It's no secret that they are going to be getting a lot of attention in the coming years. All the money being dumped on them from the top European producers surely is helping, but I'm thinking it might not hurt that their forecast is sunny with highs in the mid-80s for the rest of the week. For what it's worth (around $15 retail), High Note wasn't a bad way to bring a little of that warmth to Ohio. A new world wine no doubt, I'd recommend High Note to anyone who enjoys full-bodied reds that exhibit more fruit than some of the earthy, terroir-driven old world options.

Cheers!