A Great Little Gem from Argentina

Having read and enjoyed The Winesleuth’s recent postings of her trip to Argentina, I realised that this is another wine producing country that I’d unintentionally ignored on the blog. With this is mind, I paid a visit to my local supermarket just before Christmas to see what they had in stock, and I found, what I hoped to be an interesting bottle. The wine in question was a Torrontes from Vinalba, I know I’ve tasted the Torrontes grape before, but I could not remember what flavours you got, so this seemed like a good place to start.

The Torrontes grape is indigenous to Argentina, and the grapes in question for this wine are grown in the Mendoza region, which is in the foothills on the eastern side of the Andes Mountains. The winemaker is a gentleman called Hervé J. Fabre, who was born in Bordeaux and was apparently one of the first foreigners to recognise the potential Argentina to produce great wine.

This wine is made from 100% Torrontes; it had a pale lemon/green colour with good aromas of tropical fruit, with a hint of citrus coming through in the background, which instantly started to make my mouth water. On the palate you got all the flavours to match the aromas plus you also got a touch of stone fruit thrown into the mix to add that little bit more complexity.

This wine see’s no oak at all, and it doesn’t need it, it has a good level of acidity and a good length of flavour. Combining all these together you got an exceptionally well balanced wine that was extremely enjoyable and very refreshing. Would I recommend this, absolutely, would I buy an Argentinean Torrontes again, most definitely.

A delightful Riesling from the Mosel

When you mention German wines to most people, they instinctively think of Hock and Liebfraumilch, which is a shame really, as they produce some fantastic wines from the Riesling grape, such as the Dr L Riesling 2008, from the Loosen bros.

The grapes used to produce this wine come from the Mosel valley, near to the village of Bernkastel where the soil is predominately composed of slate. Because of this the root eating phylloxera louse can’t survive in these conditions and the vines remain on their own root stock instead of being grafted on to a phylloxera resistant one.

Many of the vines they have on their estate are well over 120 years old, with the average age being 70, this means the vines are far less vigorous producing lower yields of better quality fruit, and more expensive wines. Unfortunately the grapes from these vines aren’t used to make this wine, as they use purchased grapes from other local growers in the area, but it does produce an excellent wine.

In the glass the wine has a very pale lemony green colour, with reasonably pronounced aromas of stone fruit and citrus. On tasting you get the impression that the wine is sweeter than it actually is due to fruit flavours. The wine is actually more an off-dry style than a med. sweet wine, with fantastic flavours of peaches and nectarines with a touch of citrus coming through as an after taste. Combine these with the low levels of acidity and alcohol and you get a beautifully balanced, refreshing wine which goes down perfectly with a Thai curry.

So what do I think of this wine, for an entry level Riesling it is absolutely outstanding, especially at around the £7 price mark you can’t go wrong.