Mendoza Tasting Group: Malbec Blind and Oddball Whites!

Secret wines

Mondays have become wineriffic with my Mendoza Tasting Group! The past two meetings have found us blind tasting Malbec and experiencing the wierdo white wines that Mendoza has to offer. It's hard to believe that I only have four weeks left here before I head back to Buenos Aires and then Seattle. Hopefully the group continues on without me and hopefully I can discover or create something just as awesome back home.  For now, I continue taste and learn and meet new interesting people every week.


Two weeks ago was our Blind Malbec Tasting Price Challenge.  An assortment of Malbecs from Mendoza were chosen carefully to represent low, middle, and high-end price ranges. From box juice to the lovely Atltocedro nectar, we tasted five different wines throughout the evening. 

Another good night at Patancha

The challenge proved interesting as the damajuana wine showed better than perhaps some expected. Termidor in the box quickly gave itself away with astringent, offensive grapey flavors and a super light, low-concentrated body.  While Altocedro's Cero Uno opened with a funky nose, the concentration and complexity on the palate brought me back to taste it over and over.  Zuccardi's Serie A was the appropriate mid-range Malbec. Agreeable, red plumy, but not overly exciting. The most expensive of the evening, the Don Nicanor Malbec from Nieto Sentenier, was surprisingly uninteresting, especially in comparison to the Altocedro Malbec.

Left over tasting notes

Over all, it was a great test of palate and familiarity with the character of Mendoza Malbec.  And a fantastic introduction to Altocedro, a small but growing winery in La Consulta.  I actually used to sell the high end blend at the Stumbling Goat Bistro in Seattle, but unfortunately never got the opportunity to taste it. Now it's exciting to see the bodega really taking off. The wines are great.

Thanks, Sol y Vino!

This week's tasting was of oddball white wines from Mendoza. Tired of Sauvignon Blanc, Torrontes, and Chardonnay, we bravely tested out the likes of Argentine Pinot Gris, Semillon, and Verdelho, with some pleasant results! Blessed with a few free and discounted contributions, we tasted six wines this week.


2010 Zuccardi Santa Julia Innovacion Verdehlo


Nutty almond and green apple aromas on the nose, stony, fresh, and peachy on the palate. Thought fuller-bodied and higher-alcohol than Portuguese Verdehlo, this expression still captures the fresh, slightly salty essence of the varietal. Innovacion is kind of the experimental Zuccardi line. If these wines come out well, they are promoted to the Varietal line. Included are Albarino, Fiano, and a whole slew of other oddball grapes. Cool project.


2010 Pulenta Estate XIV Pinot Gris


Aromas of white flower, peaches, wet stone, toast, and a surprising amount of butter, this Pinot Gris is typical and atypical at the same time.  While the white peaches and minerality remind me of Oregon Pinot Gris I've enjoyed, the buttery character was a bit out of the norm, especially since this wine sees no ML or oak treatment.  Green apple and lemon on the palate with a steely mouthfeel, the Pulenta is a pleasant, easy-drinking white. Would be lovely with fish or fresh salad.


2010 Mendel Semillon


From one of my favorite boutique wineries in the Lujan, this Semillon is made from 60 year-old ungrafted vines. Toasty hazelnut on the nose, this wine opens to red apple and subtle pineapple on the palate.  Well integrated, with a lingering, lovely finish, this wine was my favorite of the bunch.  Though the 2009 I tasted back in October was showing better with more honey and flower characteristics, the 2010 shows good potential.  A well-structured wine.


2009 Chakana Reserva Viognier


Buttery, pound cake on the nose. I'm serious, the wine smelled exactly like a freshly baked, super butter pound cake with just a teeny tiny hint of white flower.  On the nose, it was more of a peach pie, with cooked fruit, toast, and a lemony finish.  Only aged three months in oak barrels but with 14.5% alcohol, this Viognier showed way too toasty, lacking many of the lovely ripe stone fruit notes that I look for in the varietal.  


2009 Lagarde Vigonier


The flagship wine from this winery that claims to be Mendoza's oldest white wine producer, the Lagarde was also remarkably uncharacteristic for Viognier.  With incredibly restrained aromas of raw honey and something slightly plasticy, the wine remained understated in the mouth with lemon rind and white peach flavors.  A bit astringent with a certain manufactured character, the Lagarde is a perfectly drinkable standard white wine, but not amazingly Viogner-like.


2007 Bressia Lagrima Canela Chardonnay/Viognier


From Mendoza cult-winemaker Walter Bressia, this powerful blend was nothing like I'd expected. Intensely hazelnutty on the nose, the wine opens into very toasty flavors with a creamy mouthfeel and subtle notes of dried pineapple.  Complex yet lacking integration. The toasty oak and ML was a but clunky, and the fruit was either covered by this, or vanished over time. 


And a surprise contribution at the very end of the evening: Mauricio Lorca Poetico Viognier. As one member put it, "What it would smell like to live in a flower." Finally, what I want out of Viognier.  Yum.


Next week, SYRAH. I guess the fact that I'm excited about this means that I've been away from Washington state for too long....