Wine club president spends $12, has hot night with an Argentinean red
Healy Jones, WG'07
Issue date: 10/9/06 Section: Insider
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This week it was Jon Adler's turn to be a nerd and not make our wine tasting, leaving me with a distinct, all-American feel to my week. I guess you never really appreciate those Australians until they abandon you in your time of need. Anyways, to make my tasting a little more international, Michelle and I were able to get together with two other wine board members, Jacobus Fourie, a South Africa who has spent a lot of time in Europe, and Zack Ventress, former resident of exotic Connecticut.
In honor of the upcoming Argentina Asado this weekend, we decided to open an Argentinean red. Argentinean wines have been getting good press recently, and the Wine & Spirits store on Chestnut had a couple of good looking Argentinean reds on sale. Supposedly, Argentina is now fifth in the world in wine production. The country has benefited from importing great wine making techniques and technologies over the past decade, and it is beginning to show. The best known wine-producing region is Mendoza.
We got together on a very hot evening, and a big red wasn't necessarily an antidote to the heat. While most red wine is served at room temperature, as it was a very warm evening, the wine was just too hot to taste right. As Jac pointed out, room temperature in Europe is typically 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, not the 79 degrees we were currently suffering through. Furthermore, the brown paper bag the Wine & Spirits store put the bottle in did not appear to have any cooling properties. So, we did something a little crazy and dropped some ice into our glasses, swirled them around and pulled them out. The trick was not to let the ice melt in the glass and water down the wine... and also, not to get red wine on my couch. Additionally, if you are going to pull this trick, take a quick look at your guests' finger length to glass height ratio. If this ratio is too low, then you've got a problem. So, Michelle drank her wine warm.
The first wine we tasted was Bodega Norton, Mendoza Argentina, Privada, 2004 (on sale for $12.99, a great price!) This is a blend of Malbec, Cabernet and Merlot. Malbec is a grape that has been embraced by Argentina, and it shows well in this unique wine. The wine has a deep, inviting purple color. We all noticed the alcohol and plum on the smell, but as the wine cooled off the alcohol abated and the plum came out. There might have been a bit of leather, according to Jac, but I think he just wanted to write that joke about my bondage gear being out. Michelle felt that there was a nice, light black cherry finish. We'd all recommend this wine with food, particularly hamburgers.
In honor of the upcoming Argentina Asado this weekend, we decided to open an Argentinean red. Argentinean wines have been getting good press recently, and the Wine & Spirits store on Chestnut had a couple of good looking Argentinean reds on sale. Supposedly, Argentina is now fifth in the world in wine production. The country has benefited from importing great wine making techniques and technologies over the past decade, and it is beginning to show. The best known wine-producing region is Mendoza.
We got together on a very hot evening, and a big red wasn't necessarily an antidote to the heat. While most red wine is served at room temperature, as it was a very warm evening, the wine was just too hot to taste right. As Jac pointed out, room temperature in Europe is typically 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, not the 79 degrees we were currently suffering through. Furthermore, the brown paper bag the Wine & Spirits store put the bottle in did not appear to have any cooling properties. So, we did something a little crazy and dropped some ice into our glasses, swirled them around and pulled them out. The trick was not to let the ice melt in the glass and water down the wine... and also, not to get red wine on my couch. Additionally, if you are going to pull this trick, take a quick look at your guests' finger length to glass height ratio. If this ratio is too low, then you've got a problem. So, Michelle drank her wine warm.
The first wine we tasted was Bodega Norton, Mendoza Argentina, Privada, 2004 (on sale for $12.99, a great price!) This is a blend of Malbec, Cabernet and Merlot. Malbec is a grape that has been embraced by Argentina, and it shows well in this unique wine. The wine has a deep, inviting purple color. We all noticed the alcohol and plum on the smell, but as the wine cooled off the alcohol abated and the plum came out. There might have been a bit of leather, according to Jac, but I think he just wanted to write that joke about my bondage gear being out. Michelle felt that there was a nice, light black cherry finish. We'd all recommend this wine with food, particularly hamburgers.
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