Tag Archives: torrontes

Mini-reviews 80: Drouhin Beaujolais Nouveau, Planet Oregon, Vistalba, Leese-Fitch

Drouhin Beaujolais NouveauReviews of wines that don ?t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month (though it posts today because of the holiday):

?Joseph Drouhin Beaujolais Nouveau 2015 ($8, purchased, 13%): Better than the last couple of vintages of this French red, in which it tastes more like wine than grape juice. But it’s still too soft and too full of that off-banana flavor that marks poorly made Beaujolais Nouveau. One day, perhaps, these wines will again be worth drinking, and I’ll keep trying them to let you know.

?Planet Oregon Pinot Noir 2014 ($20, purchased, 13.4%): There’s nothing really wrong with this Oregon red, other than I expected a bit more than it delivered. Look for lots of red fruit with some earthiness, but it’s light and too simple for $20 — even for pinot noir.

?Vistalba Tomero Torront s 2014 ($14, sample, 13%): This Argentine white is more sauvignon blanc than torrontes, with too much citrus and not enough of the soft white fruit that makes a dry torrontes so enjoyable. Having said that, it’s not unpleasant; it just doesn’t taste like torrontes. Given that, the price is problematical.

?Leese-Fitch Chardonnay 2014 ($12, sample, 13.5%): Solid and dependable grocery store chardonnay from California that follows the same template every year — just enough green apple fruit, fake oak, and heavy-ish mouth feel to taste the way it should, and consistency is a virtue when you’re standing in front of the Great Wall of Wine on your way home from work.

Two terrific wines from Nieto Senetiner, plus two others well worth drinking

nieto senetiner wine reviewsThe Wine Curmudgeon has long been in a quandary about Argentine wine. The best tend to be expensive, and there are other wines I’d rather spend the money on than its malbecs and red blends. The least expensive wines are too often corporately dull, and overpriced at that.

Which is why it was such a pleasure to taste the wines from Nieto Senetiner, a 126-year-old Argentine producer whose wines were none of those things. Santiago Mayorga, one of the company’s winemakers, knew exactly what I was talking about when I explained my dilemma to him; the company’s approach, he said, was to offer better quality than grocery store malbecs, but at a better price than the country’s high-end wines.

Much better prices, actually. These four wines are each worth buying, and the first two are exceptional values and highly recommended:

? Torrontes 2013 ($12, sample, 13.5%): A bone dry torrontes, which is as welcome as it is rare. Most versions of this white wine, the most popular in Argentina, are sweet to off dry, and too many are sickly sweet. There are delicious off-dry torrontes, but this one has even those beat. Look for an almost lemon tonic flavor with a hint of orange peel, and much more subtle than a sauvignon blanc. Pair this with grilled vegetables, Thanksgiving, even fried fish.

?Bonardo 2012 ($13, sample, 14%): Malbec gets most of the attention, but bonardo has long been an important red grape in Argentina. This wine shows why — juicy strawberry, but also spicy and almost minty. Spaghetti wine in the finest sense of the word, as well as anything with red meat and roast chicken.

? Malbec 2012 ($13, sample, 14%): I drink very little malbec; even well-made versions are usually too soft and fruity for me. This wine, somehow, is varietally correct, but plummier, darker, and deeper, and the well-constructed tannins add interest. There is more to this than just cola and blueberry aromas.

? Don Nicanor Estate Malbec 2011 ($20, sample, 14.5%): This red takes the previous malbec to the next level, with more berry flavor and some black pepper without the alcohol getting in the way. Much more complex than I thought a malbec at this price could be.

A tip o’ the WC fedora to Eli Cohn at Veritas in Dallas, who helped out with the tasting and told me how good the bonardo would be.

Winebits 292: Wine lists, Burgundy, torrontes

? No, no, no: The Italian Wine Guy parses a new restaurant wine list and finds it lacking ? for the same reasons so many restaurant wine lists fail. ?What it all boils down to is this: making a commitment to being an ambassador for good tasting wines, whether they be from Italy or California or anywhere in the world. Forget what you think your clients are looking for. They are looking for a good time. ? Why is it that so few restaurants, regardless of concept or price, understand this? Or, as I write in The Cheap Wine Book (maybe about a month away): ?Restaurant bosses would never treat a chicken breast the way they treat a bottle of wine, because they know no one would eat an overpriced piece of poor quality chicken that has gone off. But they think nothing of doing this with wine. ?

? Poor, poor Burgundy: Who knew that the French wine region, home of some of the world ?s best pinot noir and chardonnay, had something in common with west Texas? Violent hailstorms, which regularly devastate the Texas grape crop, reportedly caused catastrophic damage in parts of Burgundy this month, and as much as 90 percent of the vines were damaged. I wonder: Does this mean we ?ll be seeing For Sale in Burgundy Only wines from the 2013 vintage? (Sorry. That ?s a very wine geeky joke, but I couldn ?t help myself. Explanation here.)

? Argentina ?s white grape: How important is torrontes, the often sweet white wine made with the grape of the same name, to the Argentine wine business? How about crucial? The country exports 99 percent of the torrontes it makes, according to a recent report, and exports increased 48 percent between 2009 and 2012. Amazingly, given the grape ?s popularity in the U.S., it ?s only the sixth best seller in Argentina, behind even syrah and muscat.

Wine of the week: Yellow + Blue Torrontes 2011


Yellw + Blue TorrontesYellow + Blue makes some of the finest cheap wine in the world, and I ?ve waxed poetic about almost every one of the company ?s releases. The torrontes ($13 for a 1-liter box, purchased) is no exception.

So why does this review come with the availability caution? Because retailers still haven ?t figured out a way to successfully sell wine, like Yellow + Blue, that comes in a 1-liter box. Most store shelves and racks are made to take standard-sized wine bottles, so anything that isn ?t a standard-sized bottle gets stuffed in a corner. And if a product is stuffed in a corner, it won ?t sell as well as a product that ?s prominently displayed, regardless of quality. After all, when ?s the last time you got on your hands and knees to look for wine?

Hence retailers are wary of carrying something that they know they ?ll have trouble selling. Which means the Yellow + Blue wines are harder to find than they should be. Which is too bad, because they ?re well worth the effort ? hands and knees even, which is almost what I had to do for this one.

Torrontes is a white Argentine grape that has been made so badly for so long ? sweet and sticky ? that I ?m surprised there ?s still a market for it. The Yellow + Blue, though, shows just enough sweetness to be torrontes, but is in no way cloying. Look for peach fruit and even a tiny bit of lime zest as well as a very pleasant floral aroma and a peach pit finish.

Serve chilled as summer comes to an end, and pair it with the usual summer and spicy fare. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame (since 1 liter is about one-third more than a standard bottle, making the price about $10 a bottle).

Wine of the week: Accordeon Torrontes 2009

Finding a quality $10 malbec is difficult; finding a quality $10 torrontes makes the malbec search seem easy. That's because torrontes, which is malbec's white grape counterpart in Argentina, is in short supply. The best torrontes grapes are used to make pricey wines, and even some of the least of the grapes end up in those pricey wines.

Fortunately, Argentine producer Fincas Ferrer has found a way around this problem. The Accordeon ($10, sample) is not only one of the best-made torrontes I've had, but it's a steal at this price. I tasted the wine at a lunch with winemaker Miquel Salarich and several other Dallas wine writers, and we took turns asking Salarich if this wine was really only $10. He just smiled and said yes.

Torrontes, when it is done well, should be floral and fruity. Sometimes, the wine is off-dry, with a hint of sweetness, but this is often used to mask the wine's faults. The Accordeon is bone dry, though still low in alcohol, and it has peach fruit and an almost riesling-like oiliness (which is a good thing) as well as a classic peach pit finish. It's just not a simple, fruity white wine; there's much more to it than that.

Drink this wine chilled on its own, or with any kind of spicy food. Highly recommended, and almost certain to show up in the 2011 $10 Wine Hall of Fame.